I know that this site offers several suggestions for books on PhDs, in terms of how to approach them, what they involve etc etc, but does anyone have any recommendations? The two I've thought best (merrely according to reviews) are "Your PhD Companion" by Stephen Marshall, and "The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research" by Rugg and Petre.

Anyone have any comments on these, or other books?

Ta!

No offence taken - is a very good idea, although one that I've already done quite a bit of!

I like this one:

How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors ~Estelle Phillips, Derek S. Pugh

I bought a couple of these books (and one about preparing for the viva) and have to say that, whilst they are ok and perhaps good to read if you are trying to decide whether or not to embark on a PhD, once you are studying for your PhD you are probably better off reading your Uni's research student handbook and talking to other students. The time you save can be better spent reading papers relevant to your research

I wote for "How to get a PhD..." and "Unwritten rules...". Of course, one can use trial and error methods to find out averything about unwrittent rules of life in academia but these books will save quite a lot of time and pain:)