I've found Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" [2016 (revised edition), Ten Speed Press] to be the most useful book for me.
This is a good mix of "the how" as well as "the why," combining scientific facts with theory and practical tips. There are also many recipes/formulas for various types of breads. Mr. Reinhart was a professional baker, so he's got the hands-on experience to share, and he's also a baking instructor at Johnson & Wales, so he is a fine teacher as well.
This is probably not the best book for beginning bakers, who may get overwhelmed with all the small details. But I felt it's an excellent resource for intermediate or advanced bread bakers. Although it's $30 in hardcover (and still a good value for all the great info), it's only $6 for the Kindle e-book, making it a steal at that price.
Ironically, when I first saw it, I wasn't impressed because it seemed too detailed --- 12 stages to make a loaf of bread? But as I read through it and began to absorb all the detail, I really enjoyed it, am learning a lot from it, and often go back to it for information on a particular question. Seth
Just some advice from another bread maker - the only advice to follow comes from the dough. If you keep at it you'll know. Enjoy!
Because I make mostly whole grain breads, I frequently consult The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. When appropriate, I incorporate advice from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads (more yeast, shorter rise times and autolyze).
I'll second those recommendations. The LKBB was the first whole grain bread book I purchased when I got back into baking a few years ago; and WGB was the second one. Reinhart's book had methods that gave me success with 100% whole grain flours.
The Bread Baker's Apprentice was my go-to too. Still a favourite.
I always find myself back in Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman. I bake a lot from published recipes/formulas, and the variations of them I find right here on The Fresh Loaf, but when I have a question my first reflex is to open Bread.
I love rye breads, and you really can't find good ones in the store; you have to make them yourself. Most books only have a couple of rye recipes, and often the rye flour is <50%. But then I discovered Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker and I was able to make all sorts of rye breads from different cultures. After making a number of ryes, I started looking online for other recipes at sites suggested by Ginsberg. It's been a lot of fun!
There are a few places, mostly big cities with Northern European immigrant heritage, where you can find good rye at artisan bakeries. The bakery at a Ukrainian restaurant in Vancouver, BC is terrific Kozak Restaurant, Vancouver BC
Con Pane here in San Diego makes one deli (ie, low rye) rye bread twice a week.
If you like a variety of ryes, you can't beat The Rye Baker, book and website, which overlap a bit but not completely. https://theryebaker.com/
There are also a lot of rye recipes on German and Russian language websites that Ginsberg mentions in his book and on his website. I found some excellent Baltic rye recipes on the Russian ones.
I have a LOT of bread books. (and cookbooks) I read them like novels...weird I know.
When I first started out Flour Water Salt Yeast was my go to, I worked my way through most of the book, and learned a lot in the process. I bought Hamelman's Bread shortly after, I had a lot of unsuccessful bakes with it at the start, but now it is one of my go-to reference books.
I do have the Bread Baker's Apprentice, it never clicked for me. I use it for the occasional recipe but not regularly.
I just bought Bread Etc. and I think it's going to be my new favourite. It has all the things one would want to bake (in terms of bread like items- bagels, pretzels etc.) it has great instructions, even after doing this for many many years, I found things I learned, or answers to questions I always wondered about. It would be appropriate for a beginner, or a seasoned baker.
So, the answer is, it depends...on how far on this journey you are, and what you are looking for.
Going purely by the percentage of the recipes I baked, by a considerable margin - "Artisan Baking Across America"
Two things bother me about this book:
I had a tough time understanding his sourdough explanations and directions; "barm" may be just another name for something but I'm not sure what.
"Bread" by Hamelman is a firehose of information for professionals but it is usable by beginners if you don't try to get too deep in the details before you have the Big Picture. He does give home-size batches in traditional units; I use his metric formulas, divided by 10, for two loaves.
"The Rye Baker" is specialized but also good for home bakers. Ginsburg's instructions for building/maintaining a starter were the only ones that worked for me.