Graduation gift for self
So, I'm finally getting my doctorate! My committee has agreed to (finally!) sign off the dissertation. As a graduation gift to myself, I thought of getting one or two good bread books. I'm a novice baker, first having started off with no-knead bread, then to making partial whole wheat, and now all whole wheat bread. I find my breads to be quite satisfactory, and better than store bought loaves, at least in my opinion :) I have good oven rise in my bread, flavour is good, and I use the French knead method (so my doughs tend to be on the wet side, which I find more freindly to baking than drier doughs). Still, I'm a novice. I've baked from Bertinet's Whole Grain Book, Tassajara Bread Book, and Zen Monastery Cook Book. The latter one is not well-known in the bread world, I'd imagine, as it's more of a vegetarian cook book than a bread only book.
Anyhow, help me decide which of the following I should definitely have as a staple in my bread book collection. Or, perhaps you have others to recommend? I would like to purchase about two as good reference-type books.
• River Cottage Bread Handbook
• Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book
• Reinhardt's Whole Grain Book
• Reinhardt's Crust and Crumb
• Baker's Apprentice
• Bread Bible
• Hamelman's Bread Book (I realise Hamelman is coming out with an updated 2nd edition, with corrections, etc. If I do get this book, it'll be the 2nd edition coming out in November).
• Others to consider?
By the way, I can't afford to purchase all of these at once. I can only afford one or two right now :)