The world is filled with them. As obvious as it may sound, your local library is the best place to start, rather than going out and buying tons of material. Keep in mind that you probably will only want to take with you one text per country. Fodors and Arthur Frommer guides make great reading before you go, but we suggest the Lonely Planet series if you have to buy and take a book with you. Check out: www.lonelyplanet.com