Anyone ever read any of these 33 1/3 books? They've got a whole bunch and cover tons of classic albums that I love. I'm not a big reader, but I love these kind of musical history stories and these don't look too daunting to get through.
http://333sound.com/33-13-series/
Not sure if you're still looking into these but I've read a few. They're pretty good overall. Usually about 100 pages or so. Definitely good for a quick, casual read. They are all by different authors (mostly) so the books differ from each other depending on each author's approach and writing style. Not all go into much detail in terms of the actual recording of each album though, so sometimes they can be a little lacking in that area if you're interested in the actual recording process.
I've read these:
I'd say my favourites are:
Paul's Boutique - So cool reading about how they made that album, moving to LA and working with Matt Dike and the Dust Brothers. Seemed like it would have been such a rad time in general.
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - This one is really well written. The author talks about the political and social environment in three areas: SF, California, and the US as a whole. So that serves as the backdrop to the DK story which gives really good context to everything.
Bizarre Ride - Have to shout out this one simply because it's one of my all time favourite albums so it was just cool to finally learn the story.
There are a couple like the Nirvana and Pixies books where I didn't really learn anything new. Also the Nick Drake book is pretty lacking but I don't think there is a lot to work with for him and it also spends way too much time talking about a goddamn VW commercial with one of his songs.