I've got a few hundred nonfiction Star Trek books, so I care. My first nonfiction Star Trek book was David Gerrold's The World of Star Trek, which I got about 40 years ago. Some of the most recent are listed over in the Latest Acquisitions thread. The nonfiction books have always been a significant part of Trek book collecting for me, but when I started doing the old Complete Starfleet Library website I made more of an effort to track down obscure academic books, books from small publishers, etc.
So happy to see the love for the TZ Companion - will have to send Marc a link to this thread! (Don't know if he'll have the chance to stop by though - he's so busy working on so many projects!) While those three books pretty much set my goal in life lol of wanting to write about television shows I love, I also want to give a shoutout to the utterly marvelous DS9 Companion which is just the be-all and end-all of what a TV show companion book should be. *bows down* UPDATE: Marc Zicree says thanks everyone and if you'd like to see what he's up to right now check out www.spacecommandmovie.com which he's working on with some familiar faces.
My favorites were the Nitpicker's Guides, which went through each series identifying all the continuity errors, contradictions and and scientific flubs.
I've started rewatching Deep Space Nine again and thus rereading the relevant entries of the DS9 Companion. It's hard to hold myself back, though; I ended up reading almost all the first season entries after watching "Past Prologue"!
I'm continuing to pick up inexpensive copies of the books I missed when they were first released. I grabbed all of the Nitpickers books cheap on Amazon. And then the 3rd edition of the Encyclodpedia and The Continuing Mission (hardcover) from Half. And then from Paperbackswap I got The Making Of DS9, Where No One Has Gone Before (hardcover), and Captain's Logs (along with the Supplemental edition). Although not dirt cheap, I finally found the DS9 Technical Manual and Phase II for decent prices. And I've also picked up a bunch of the Cinefantastique special issues from eBay. All in all, I've been able to grab most of the books that I had missed, either because I was unaware or because they didn't fit my budget. Now I'm going to need a bigger bookcase...
I used to have gerrolds world of star trek. Also had star trek lives! Curious to check out the first of trek non fiction the making of star trek. It sounds good. Love trek fiction and non fiction. Very good stuff. I bought up both volumes of these are the voyages and most of the cinefantastique back issues. So yeah i have lots of good reading to do. Flea markets usually the best places to find Trek books for cheap. Had picked up a lot of Pocket novels and the old Ballantine books too. Hell i even picked up all the Ian Fleming James Bond books dirt cheap. All in very good condition too.
Years ago I set up a Google alert for stuff on Star Trek books. Yesterday I got an unfortunate Trek nonfiction-related surprise: Ruby Moon-Houldson, who did a few unauthorized books through various vanity presses and such, is dead in what police are calling a homicide. We actually exchanged a few polite emails many years ago after I posted some harsh reviews of her books -- she was reproducing some people's web content without permission and sometimes attribution. I haven't come across any Trek books by her in a long time, so seeing her name pop up in a Google alert in this context... damn. My sympathy to her friends and family.
I've been enjoying These are the Voyages. Been going through episode by episode -- one a night or so, doing the reading on it then watching the episode. It's pretty insightful and fun. I haven't read any of the actor autobiographies or anything like that (typically more interested in writing myself) are they worth the read?
I've been enjoying the autobiographies (or in DeForest Kelley's case, biography) quite a bit. Back in the day, I bypassed most of them, but I did read Shatner's Trek Memories, Movie Memories and George Takei's "To The Star". I also had cassettes of Shatner's first 3 autobiographical Trek books (the two Memories + Get A Life). I also listened to his "Up Till Now" autobiography. But about a year ago, I saw Rod Roddenberry's documentary and it triggered an insatiable non-fiction Trek reading binge. Maybe it's because Rod and I are around the same age, but I was watching it and I was struck by how important this franchise has become to me, and how much more I needed to explore it. I realized I knew very little about Gene Roddenberry, so I went out and bought all the biographies I could find on the man and enjoyed all of them. And then I thought about Leonard Nimoy and how I wanted to "get to know" him and the rest of the cast. So I did. To answer your question: Yes. I think the biographies are worth it if you're a huge Trek fan.
The DS9 Companion and the TOS and TNG tech manuals are some of my favorite works. Would have loved to see a Voyager tech manual.