Ask a shooter to name his single most important possession besides the obvious--his rifle and ammunition (loved ones aside)--and chances are you'll get a multiplicity of responses, ranging from gun safes to cleaning solvents. But besides my firearms, my most priceless possession is my vast library of books.

Books are the physical embodiments of facts and experiences, and there are some books--more or less in ready supply--that I feel should be in everyone's library to mentally stimulate our knowledge and provide a better understanding and appreciation of the guns we shoot.

Because the selection of books is a matter of personal opinion--in this case my personal opinion--there is no "correct" library for rifle shooters. I have no doubt there will be disagreements on my top 10 picks, and would be surprised if you did not come up with additional selections of your own. In fact, you might wish to share those choices. I look forward to hearing from you. Perhaps next time we can expand this list to include the top 20 titles that you think every rifle shooter should have. But for now, here are my choices.

1. Blue Book of Gun Values by S.P. Fjestad (800-877-4867).
How often have you asked--or been asked--"What's this rifle worth?" Well, for the past 29 years the Blue Book of Gun Values has been answering that question. At 2,176 pages, the current edition is weightier than most phone books. But within the Blue Book's covers you'll find up-to-date prices, according to percentage of finish, of more than 350,000 firearms, encompassing practically every rifle made, past or present, from A.A. Arms carbines to Antonio Zoli rifles.

Pre-war, post war, antique and modern, if it has a stock, trigger and barrel, you'll find it here. Plus there's a color photo reference guide to illustrate percentage of finish, a glossary, trademark index and serial number charts on some of the more collectible firearms. These all combine to make this a full-service reference book for buying, selling, or just knowing what you've got in your gun rack. It is one book you really can't afford to be without.

2. Gun Digest 2009, Krause Publications (888-457-2873).
I've been reading every issue of the annual Gun Digest for more than 40 years, and I've never tossed one of them out. In fact, at a gun show years ago, I even paid a premium for the 1946 edition, the very first time this folksy reference book made its appearance.

Gun Digests are invaluable for their catalog sections in the back of the book, which lists and depicts every firearm for that year, complete with retail prices and model variations. The ballistics section used to be much more extensive, but it is still a good, albeit scaled-down, source of information.

3.The Gun And Its Development, 9th edition, by W.W. Greener, Lyons Press, 2002 (800-820-2329).
Born in Great Britain, William Wellington Greener was an internationally known firearms authority. During his lifetime (1834-1921), Greener witnessed quantum leaps in firearms technology. In 1881 he wrote a book modestly titled, The Gun And Its Development. It proved to be immensely popular and went through numerous editions.

However, in 1910, Greener dramatically revised and updated his book, thereby creating a classic that still remains relevant almost a century later. It is this ningth edition that is a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in how modern hunting and target rifles evolved from the earliest slingshots and longbows to the precision shooting machines they are today.