I love books, all books, not only 3d art ones, I have a collection of around 500 or so novels, manuals, art books, graphic novels etc! Here's a list of some of the 3d books I've found really helpful so far, after spending several weeks wages! I found quite a few of them second hand so it's not always that expensive if you search around,most of what I've learnt so far have come from them.

Sybex:Mastering Maya 8.5
Sybex:Advanced Texturing and Lighting by Lee Lainer
Focal Press:Character Modeling in Maya and Zbrush
Sybex:Mentalray for Maya,3d max and XSI
Sybex:Maya Secrets of the Pro's
Understanding 3d animation using Maya by John Edgar Park
Creating striking graphics with Maya and Photoshop by Daniel Gray
Focal Press:An essential Introduction to Maya character rigging
Sybex:The Game animators guide to maya

Non Maya specific:

Sybex:Stop staring! Modeling and Animation done right
Animation Tops and Tricks by Shawn Kelly
Sybexigital Photography for 3d imaging and animation
New Ridersigital Texturing and Painting by Owen Demers
Zbrush character creation: Advanced digital sculpting
Design First for 3d Artists by Geoffrey Kater
Digital Animation Bible by George Avgerakis

Hope it's helpful to someone!
Sorry,the emoticons came up for some reason,I'm guessing you can work out what letter it's replacing....