I have a book called "Totally Guitar: the definitive guide" by Tony Bacon and Dave Hunter which I find to be awesome. It has an introductory section about the basic history of the guitar, a section with some easy lessons, a section that tells you how to change strings, set intonation, remove pickups, etc., a section about effects pedals and how they work, and a section with pictures of all different makes of guitar from just about every company you can think of it.

It truly is a great book. If you could combine something like that with some harder lessons, you'd have one helluva book.