The missus and I have decided that the time is right to try to have a baby.

In light of that, are there any good books I could read that might help prepare me for the missus being pregnant, and books on being a dad?

Although it's the cliche response, you'd be hard pressed to find more thorough books than "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and "What To Expect In Your First Year". You'll have time to read all of the first, and none of the second.

And congrats.

What he said. And the HypnoBirthing book, natch. And just to forewarn you, step away from the parenting books. Especially anything by Gina Bloody Ford or the Baby Bloody Whisperer.

And congrats.

You'll probably find Razzle quite useful.

The best advice I can give about parenting books is.

1) Read more than one.

2) Never treat any of their opinions as being the last word on a subject; if your gut tells you that their view on a particular issue is bollocks, go with your gut.

I'd second what WoM said about the "What to Expect" series. They are good at conveying the basics. We also liked Penelope Leach and found that Dr. Spock's book was good to have around as a reference. We didn't like Berry Brazelton. This very straightforward book on first aid is something we still use.

Your mileage may vary. I'd suggest spending 30 minutes in a bookstore looking at the relevant section and seeing what makes sense to you (you may not think that you have any clue whatsoever, but you do).

As for fatherhood, I never found anything that was particularly useful. Not that that interfered in any way with it being the best thing that ever happened to me.

I found the What To Expect books to be best. They seem to be best in recognizing that fathers and fathers-to-be might be reading them and actually have some passages directed towards dads. I noticed that most other books are solely directed to moms, which doesn't offend me or anything--I recognize that it probably is mostly mothers-to-be purchasing the books--but I did get miffed off at some passages in some books my wife was given that have the standard jokes about dads being incompetent or scared over changing diapers.

I like the website babble.com as well--sometimes it can be annoying in trying to be too hip (it's directed towards younger, urban parents), but it's straightforward and thankfully short on the quasi-religious platitudes that a lot of mainstream writing on babies tends to be.

One more thing.

Don't pay full price for any of this stuff (you'll need to save money). This is one of the ultimate used book store/borrow from a friend genres, and you absolutely don't need the "2009 Edition".

I'd be happy to send you ours, but a) they are American editions, so the reference bits aren't very useful (not to mention spelling outrages) and b) they are ten years old, which is a bit long in the tooth (five years is fine).

Jason you should start hanging around on mumsnet - apparently it's now practically obligatory.

We're still in the pre-planning stage (or the "we've-fired-at-the-target-but-don't-know-if-anything-hit-yet" stage).

Oh they have acres of threads on trying to conceive.

Enjoy it while you can mate.
It'll be the last time for a while...

I used to chuckle when old married guys said that to me.
Used to.

One more piece of advice:

Don't read too much.

Of course it's higly sensible to know about the biological and psychological processess of the foetus and baby as well as of the mother and father, but apart from that I'd strongly advise against reading too many books. You might end up completely confused.

Our first experience of having children turned out to be twins and we found Gina Ford's advice very helpful.

I only mention this because she does seem to have many vociferous critics - but her ideas worked for us.

There's two types - fact stuff (ie, what is the weird feeling my wife has) and opinion stuff (why your wife should avoid onions/wine/wheat during pregnancy).

For the former, Mumsnet or google; avoid the US based-sites ones as they're much more risk averse (one woman once farted whilst pregnant whilst having eaten Corn Flakes and suffered a prolapse so best avoid corn flakes).

The trouble with books is that they reinforce the dangerous idea that there is one way to feel or be and that if you don't have it, something is wrong. Mumsnet is great for this, as you get people flatly contradicting each other (I threw up five times a day / I never threw up at all) and all stories end well as little babies get born fine regardless. That's really reassuring, and drums in the message.

We didn't like the What to Expect book, as it wasn't themed in the right way so finding that one thing you wanted to know about was hard. It was also obsessed with the mother's diet. We preferred Pregnancy for Dummies.

I can't be doing with Gina Ford and I found her stuff really distasteful. She seems to assume the baby is an active and duplicitous conniver, rather than a living thing which only has one way of communicating its basic wants. The whole gist of Ford's book felt like how you can make having a baby fit into your life with minimum hassle. She's obsessed with a routine which regardless of any longer-term benefits, has a immediate practical benefit which leaves them sleeping through the night as soon as possible.

It's like the Atkins diet - a diet marketed at people who don't want to inconvenience of actually changing their behaviour. Ditto this - how to have babies and carry on working like a slave in the rest of your life. Babies change your life, which is kind of both obligatory and the point. I blame Thatcher, obviously.

Oh, and sign up for NCT classes. You'll learn loads, and your wife will acquire a support group for the first few months which is local.