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David Bailey's Improvisation: book long discussion about the role of improvisation in music wrt different genres like rock, jazz, 'composed music', folk etc.

anyone want to tell me where to start with Toop and also is the book of essays about Scott Walker that just came out good?

Critical discussion/deconstruction? (Auto)Biography?

For what it's worth I can thoroughly recommend:

Ian Johnston's 'Bad Seed'; documenting Nick Cave's career from outset to Let Love In

Johnny Green's 'A Riot of Our Own' about living with The Clash

Julian Cope's brilliant autobiography 'Head-On/Repossessed'

I'm not sure what I think yet

is a good read, too

for a good readable not-too-wankily-academic history of the whole TG/Coil/NWW/Whitehouse scene.

Please Kill Me for an un-putdownable fist-person-account history of the American punk scene.

Our Band Could Be Your Life for some good essays on various post-punk bands. Not great, every chapter reads like all the others, so it's not one to read from start to finish. But for dipping into, it's fine. The chapters on Dinosaur Jr, Big Black and the Butthole Surfers are wonderful.

http://www.blackdogonline.com/music/wreckers-of-civilisation.html

COUM Transmissions/Throbbing Gristle

Is REALLY good.
Also: http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4262548

It's a book about classical music in the 20th century. Even if you don't like the music, it's a really interesting read.

Rip It Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds is great. Pretty much just a history of post punk.

Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald analyses every song the Beatles ever recorded in chronological order, but not just in a musical way. Serves as a really good biography of the band too.

David Toop - ocean of sound
Paul Morley - words & music
Mick Farren - give the anarchist a cigarette
and for a laugh
Colin B. Morton and Chuck Death - great pop things

I am about to read kristin hersh's book, can't vouch for it yet but it is supposed to be good

Mark e Smith's book Renegade, is a must read as well. Tells you fuck all about anything to do with the band, but it's a real entertaining read.

the book on motley crue, shite band but this book is good for the lulz

lester bangs - psychotic reactions and carburetor dung, good compilation of his best stuff.

and
Black Vinyl, White Powder by Simon Napier Bell

Chronicles is a fantastic read.

'The Dark Stuff' by Nick Kent. Morrissey's cover quote sums it up best: "I could tell you stories about Nick Kent that would uncurl the hair in your afro."

If only for the opening essay on the 60's. Incredible book.

Lester Bangs - Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
Richard Meltzer - The Aesthetics of Rock
John Savage - England's Dreaming
Da Capo Best Music Writing 20?? - annual collection
Chuck Klosterman - Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
Michael Bracewell - The Nineties: When the Surface Was Depth
Ben Myers - American Heretics: Rebel Voices in Music (great interviews with everyone from Rollins to Slipknot)
Theodor Adorno - The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture

Music Biz
Steve Knopper - Appetite For Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash Of the Record Industry In the Digital Age
Walter Yetnikoff - Howling at the Moon (tales of Jacko, The Boss, booze, drugs, madness)

Tech-but-also-about-music/biz
Jaron Lanier - You're Not a Gadget (some great bits about synths and AI)
Andrew Keen - Cult of the Amateur, How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Cuture
Matt Mason - The Pirate's Dilemma
Frank Rose - The Art of Immersion (one of the best books I read last year, lots of great bits in there about Nine Inch Nails through Lost and the marketing of Batman)

Fiction
Don Delillo - Great Jones Street (greatest opening to a book, ever!)
John Niven - Kill Your Friends

http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?ReturnURL=%2fmain.aspx&BookId=162202&SubjectId=1381&Subject2Id=1381

and am VERY much looking forward to it

also +1s for Head On/Possesed, Retromania, Rip it up & start again & England's Dreaming

Some not suggested yet;

Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia

Stan Cornyn - Exploding (a really entertaing history of Warners which encapsulates the entire growth of the music industry from post war to millenium)

and for dance music
Last Night a DJ saved my life (completely comprehensive)

and the much more Detroit/Chicago focused Techno Rebels by Dan Sicko

all good stuff

Just started reading this. Extracts from the opening two paragraphs...

Listen. The greatest feeling I have ever had in my life - with my clothes on - was when I first heard Diz and Bird together in St Louis, Missouri, back in 1944.....Man, that shit was so terrible it was scary....It was a motherfucker. Man, that shit was up all in my body....that was all I wanted to hear. It was something.

The whole book's like this. Everyone's a motherfucker in Miles' eyes.

do it for your mum - roy wilkinson
falling and laughing: the restoration of edwyn collins - grace maxwell
things the grandchildren should know - mark oliver everett
different for girls: a girl's own true-life adventures in pop - louise wener
i choose this - how to nearly make it in the music industry - david ford

Is a great (bitter, vitriolic) take on his career and brit pop in general.
Also...
Barney Hoskyns-hotel california
Rob Young- Electric Eden
Faber Book of pop
Bob Dylan-Chronicles.

Dark Globe - Syd Barrett / Floyd
Cant Buy Me Love - Beatles / 60s pop culture etc ALL REALLY GOOD!

Entertaining both for the insight into the reclusive world of Kraftwerk and for the massive ego of its author

Johnny Rogan - Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance

John Harris - The Last Party: Britpop, Blair & the Demise of English Rock
Fantastic look at how the experimental, adventurous spirit of the late 80s/early 90s was quashed by legions of Beatles/Kinks copyists, and shows up Albarn for the cunt that he is. A great read.

A history of independent record labels in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/04/how-soon-is-now-richard-king-review - A review that got me into buying it.

Julian Cope - Head On/Repossessed

also:
Black Monk Time by Eddie Shaw is an absolute must.

Three of my favourite ones:

Making Music/Consuming Technology - Paul Theberge
Musica Locales En Tiempos de Globalizacion - Ana Maria Ochoa
The Social Production Of Art - Janet Wolff

(Oh, and there's also the kind-of-infamous "Noise" by Jacques Attali, which have some points that i disagree... but a great book indeed)