Travel Books

Here are the books I found most or least useful by destination.  My favorite source of these books are:

• Public Library
• Used book or rummage sales (e.g. held by library or local charity)
• Amazon.com

Italy
You can't go wrong with any of the Rick Steves' books.  I personally preferred getting the individual books for each city so that I could abandon them en route if I needed luggage space.  I like the flexibility of packing several smaller books vs. one gigantic, heavy book.  Plus, for the cities I really liked and hope to return to some day, I saved those books while donating the others for cities I don't plan to visit again.  The comprehensive tome that covers multiple major cities is like an encyclopedia and is too heavy to lug around for day trip traveling.

In addition, I also liked Eyewitness Travel's Milan and the Lakes since I did not find a city-specific Rick Steves book that covered Milan as well as this book did.

Montreal
Secret Montreal
If you want to go off the beaten path, I highly recommend this book.  Several of the 'secret' sites are free or inexpensive public art or building facades.

Switzerland
Cadogan Guides Switzerland
It features more detail on cities like Basel than other tour books.
I found Rick Steve's book to be woefully inadequate.  It is heavy on Eastern Switzerland and misses a lot of cities.  It is very cursory and overall a disappointment.

Paris
I used Fodor's books (top 10 and comprehensive books) as well as websites for free things to do in Paris.

Berlin
Besides Fodor's and Rick Steves' books, I also used Lonely Planet's Berlin City Guide.