Digital Typography Sourcebook

This book has a very good overview of typography for a beginner, the development and history of various typefaces, and the anatomy of the characters. The CD contains a few fonts that help make the price of the book a bit better. The actual examples of typefaces in use were terribly amateurish, however, and didn't serve to illustrate the author's point of view very well. I would recommend this book as a reference, but not a guide for using type in practice.