As I ultimately was to get images of what I observe I acquired the following book from FLO

Making Every Photon Count 

read the first few chapters - is very good so far and aimed at the absolute beginner

I also bought 2nd hand Turn left at Orion

Ok book - pretty basic diagrams of the constellations and star maps\objects of interest (all in sketch form) but good enough to find objects of interest and there is info about them