Listed here are some of the books that I've found helpful throughout my limited web authoring experience. The problem with tech books, aside from the high price and the padded chapters (if I see another advanced book with a chapter on "History of the Internet" I will scream), is that they quickly become outdated.
Elizabeth Castro
Peachpit Press
A peach of a book, not usually far from my authoring activities.
Jason Cranford Teague
Peachpit Press
John C. Dvorak & Chris Pirillo with Wendy Taylor
Prentice
Hall
The wisdom of the digital age in a book.
Eric A. Meyer
O'Reilly
The only book on stylesheets that I need, although I'm currently checking out a few others that I might add to this list.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Pearson Education
Robin Williams
Peachpit Press
Another winning project from Ms. Williams.
by Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin
Andrew Sather, Ardith Ibanez, Bernie DeChant, Pascal
Lynda Weinman & Joh Warren Lentz
Ms. Weinman's books feature good case studies and clear explanations.
Jakob Nielsen
Required reading. Nielsen expands on his popular usability columns. Nielsen's books are always worth their money.
Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir
Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
Great reading. Money and time well spent.
Jason Cranford Teague
This book gave me a great refresher course in frames after living a frame-less existence for four years.
Thomas A. Powell
Everyone who builds web sites should have one of these.
Crystal Waters
Mary E.S. Morris & Randy J. Hindrichs
A classic. This book was very helpful to me when I was learning to work with HTML. Picking it up again years later has given me a new appreciation for this title.
Roger Black
Some people didn't like this book, but I did. Sure there's no code, no CD, and it still costs $45. Sure, it often seems that Mr. Black is gloating I still like it. Ok?
Lynch and Horton
This should be required reading, and is actually very reasonably priced, considering what you get.
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
This is not a tech book, but it is never far from me. One of the great graphic novels from the past twenty years.