December 26, 1999 -- The last two decades have been very good to beer aficionados. Not only have new breweries sprung up at a remarkable rate and classic beers become more widely available than ever before, but the resources at hand to help a person keep track of it all have multiplied immeasurably. But with such a plethora of beer books crowding the shelves at your local book store, it has also become a bit of a challenge to sort through them all and separate the beer essentials from the trend riders.

To help beer drinkers stride purposefully towards the new millennium, I decided to cast my eye towards my own amply-stocked beer library and sort the delights from the duds, the gems from the junk. In the end, I found that I had come up with a list of the ten books any beer aficionado should have on their shelf as we head into the new year, century and millennium.

Michael Jackson's Beer Companion -- The master's finest work! This is Jackson at his absolute best and a treasure that no beer library should be without.

A Taste for Beer by Stephen Beaumont -- I won't let false modesty stand in the way of recommending my favourite of my own three books. Unfortunately, this is also out-of-print, so if you don't own it by now, you may have to do without. (We do have a few copies at World of Beer Central, so please email for ordering details if you so desire.)

The Beers of France by John Woods and Keith Rigley -- These guys write beer guides the way they should be written: engagingly, informatively and thoroughly. The fact that it is also about a region not automatically associated with beer is a bonus, a reminder that there is more to beer that immediately meets the eye.

A Selective Guide to Brussels Bars by Stephen D'Arcy -- Don't let the title fool you, this continually updated, printed-on-demand book is about much more than the bars of Brussels. D'arcy is the ultimate Belgian tour guide, telling you precisely where to go in most of the country's major cities (and many of its smaller towns), how to get there and what to drink once you have arrived.

The World Encyclopedia of Beer by Brian Glover -- It is a rare beer book that covers the brews of Greece, Turkey, Italy and Iceland, and for that reason alone this book is worth its cost. The best of a batch of almost instantly remaindered coffee table beer books published in the second half of the 1990's.

La Bière by Mario D'Eer -- Written in French, this is one of the most thorough beer books I have ever encountered. D'Eer writes with style, humour and a readily apparent passion for his subject matter. And unlike so many staid epistles to beer, this book is actually fun!

The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to Beer by Michael Jackson -- Nobody covers the world better than Jackson, and for all of its apparent omissions and frustratingly clipped reviews, this is still a brilliantly useful resource. What's more, it's a "Pocket Guide" that actually fits in your pocket!

The CAMRA Good Beer Guide -- It does take a little practice using this guide before you get it right, but that accomplished, this is a dynamite book for the British Isles. Whether resident or visitor, an up-to-date Good Beer Guide means never having to say that you're sorry you stepped into the wrong pub.

Beer Blast by Philip Van Munching -- Sure, we all think that we know how far the megabreweries will go to convince us to drink their beer, but here's Van Munching to tell us that we're wrong...they'll go ten times that far! A tremendously entertaining read and a fitting condemnation of Big Beer Biz.

Classic Stout and Porter by Roger Protz -- Protz knows that beer style books don't have to be boring and ably demonstrates this understanding in this book. A most enjoyable survey of the past and present of stout and porter.

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