I had my students read Porter's biography of Coltrane -- very interesting stuff for anybody into jazz. Guitarists could pick up a lot from a book like this.

There's another good book on the making of 'Trane's album Love Supreme that is rather good too. There are tons of books covering the lives of musicians out there.

Funny, I always like guitar/music books that spent more time "talking" than going over exercises, etc., (kinda like a Freudian 'talking cure' I suppose) -- so I decided to write my own guitar book that does a lot of 'talking' with less in the way of exercises. Maybe by the end of next year I'll be done with it....the outline alone is now up to 10 pages.

http://kronosonic.com