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I've made a few loaves and rolls, but would like a book that explains the whys and hows AND has basic recipes.  But I don't want a doorstop about Baking and Josie Baker's book is too non-traditional for what I'm looking for.  Any suggestions?

I'm not a baker at all, so take this for what it's worth:  A friend who makes and sells amazingly excellent artisanal bread (baked in an outdoor wood oven) recommended Nick Malgieri, when I asked who to read to learn about bread making. He has quite a few books, and some of them may be doorstops, but a recent one looks very manageable and is full of photos illustrating processes: Nick Malgieri's Bread (Plus Sweet & Savory Recipes Made from Bread).

He doesn't any more, tragically, although a lot of his recipes for the Guardian are still available online.

I second the Dan Lepard suggestion. Following his recipes has made me a much better baker!

The Dan Lepard one is good. You might also take a look at Paul Hollywood's How to Bake. I'm not keen on his TV persona, but he does know how to bake. It covers more than just bread -- there are croissants, Danish pastries, cakes and biscuits in here too. It also has a whole chapter on sourdough, which is unusual and useful (to me anyway, I always have overflowing pots of starter in the kitchen).

That is good to know - I had Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads and I thought it was very poor: badly tested, lots of errors. But there are a couple of his recipes from the BBC website that I use again and again.

Thanks for the suggestions, all of which are new to me, so I couldn't have found them woth out you.

I just requested a bunch of books from my local library to compare b/4 I buy.  I'm figuring the content will be pretty similar, so I have to go with the style that fits me best.

I'll post a book report when I've had a good look at them all.

Please do! It'd be great to hear how a fairly inexperience bread baker goes with them, so I know what to recommend in future!

I will second the Peter Rienhard suggestion, after looking thru several of his books from the library, I bought Crust and Crumb.  However, he really goes into everything bread...its not simple.  

Beard on Bread is a nice basic book though, if you are looking for a good starting point.  If you are looking for a more modern day bread cookbook, try Beth Hensperger, Bread Made Easy or Beth's Basic Bread Book. 

Thaks! I've now added Bread made easy and the Bread Bible to my library requests.  I'm gonna need a bigger book bag...

For something simple you might want to try James Beard On Bread or Beth Hensperger's Bread Bible.

 The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  by Hertzberg and Francois

Their website is helpful  www.artisanbreadinfive.com 

And they have additional books if you'd like to build on what you learn in the basic one.

Sharon

I like James Peterson's book "Baking". It has everything, and pictures to illustrate. 
And I recently got a copy of The italian Baker by Carold Field. If you're looking for a bit more artisian style her book is amazing.  

I learnt to bake with my Mum & her copy of "Mary's bread basket & soup kettle" - I've wished many times that it was still in print.  Just googled & amazon has some so I'm pretty excited at the moment.  It's an absolute beauty of a book with dozens & dozens of bread recipes, basic, sweet, savoury, sourdough, goes through all the different methods for making bread (even fridge bread from memory but I can't be sure, I just remember taking the dough camping & thought I got the idea from that book). 

http://www.eatyourbooks....02230/step-by-step-bread

I bought this book for my daughter, but I will have to buy another copy for her because I'm keeping this one. :)

I've baked bread for years, but this has some great recipes, and in true DK Books fashion every recipe has at least one photograph. Some of the recipes have step-by-step photos which is fantastic for someone new to baking, but even if you are an old hand in the kitchen you may see some new ideas (or be tempted to try something new because of the yummy looking photos). As I looked through I thought back to my first kitchen, living on a tight budget. The only way we could afford whole wheat bread and bagels was to cook them from scratch and the only cookbook I had was Joy of Cooking (early 80's so no internet!). If I had this book way back then my first few batches of bagels and soft pretzels wouldn't have been so mangled, unravel-y and let's face it, kinda gooey (brush on beaten egg...yeah, more is better right? LOL - I had little puddles of cooked egg around each one).

It covers a wide range of breads - everything from basic bread and simple flour tortillas to braided loaves and pastries. It even teaches you how to make a sourdough starter (although they use a yeast boost and don't offer instructions on maintaining a starter - they have you make a new sponge each time).

This is the book I would buy for someone just starting out baking bread. 

Unfortunately, it's not indexed yet as it's only on a couple of bookshelves, which is a shame, it's a great little book.  It's available on Amazon and has the "look inside" option enabled.