`The River Cottage Bread Handbook' is interesting, in that it gives very different recipes from many cultures, some are rather advanced for a beginner bread baker, but yet there is a very good 30+ page instructional section on how to bake bread. It shows the dough at different stages which would help those beginning bakers that seem to have a terror of baking bread to know what they should expect their product to look like.
The book is a small size about 8"x5", the pages are heavy so you will need to weight it down in order to keep your place while cooking. Despite the smaller page size the print is easy to read. There are plenty of pictures, both of techniques, dough and finished bread products. The introduction is interesting, telling why mass made machine bread is bad for you. Baking equipment needed is described.
The recipes themselves are given with weight, grams and ounces - this originally is an English cookbook, but has been `translated' in `American'. There is a section on wild yeast, basically what Americans call sourdough - making your own yeast.
The many breads from different cultures are probably too ambitious for a beginning cook, but would be interesting to try none the less if they are adventuresome; including roti - bread from India and Nepal, tortillas and crackers. A section is included on what to do with left over bread and even how to build your own clay oven.
This is not the ordinary bread book, it would seem to be for someone looking for a bit of venturesome baking.