What to read

(and how to read it)

There are now quite a few English language books on go available. The best thing is to read all of them. However, some people seem to have limited resources of time, money, or interest, and don't really want to do that. My picks for the 10 best English language go books are (more or less in order of difficulty):

Learn to Play Go I-IX (Kim/Jeong, Good Move Press)
The Magic of Go (Cho, Ishi)
Opening Theory Made Easy (Otake, Ishi)
Handicap Go (?, Ishi)
Basic Techniques of Go (Haruyama/Nagahara, Ishi)
Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go (Kageyama, Ishi)
Attack and Defense (A. Ishida, Ishi)
Breakthrough to Shodan (Miyamoto, Ishi)
Strategic Concepts of Go (Nagahara, Ishi)
Dictionary of Basic Joseki I-III (Y. Ishida, Ishi)

I also have a lot of affection for

In the Beginning (Ishigure, Ishi)
Vital Points of Go (Takagawa, ?, 1958)
Go Proverbs Illustrated (Segoe, Japanese Go Association, 1960)

The sad thing is, many of these may be out of print and hard to get.

One important thing is to reread books; all these books are very rich (especially the more advanced ones), and you take away different information depending on what your level is and what you're ready to absorb.