Every budgie owner needs a reliable book. This page will detail the better ones, so enabling you to avoid the worse ones. In particular, books that suggest brutal training methods will be excluded.
Books assessed to date: 3, of which 2 are listed here, and 1 rejected.

Cobber Budgies Review
This excellent book is bang up to date, packed with information and full of interest. It features two photographs of wild budgerigars amongst its many attractive illustrations, and its chapter on 'Budgerigar Health' stands out from the crowd. This is more than an introduction to budgerigars; it is a handbook.

However, a good part of the book is aimed at the person who wants to set up an aviary or start breeding, and, in a book this size, there could be more on making friends with your first pet.

Not the cheapest way to get the pet basics in print, but certainly recommended reading. Superior to the Official RSPCA Pet Guide detailed below -- particularly if you really want to learn about colour varieties.

This edition has been out of print for some time (October 2007). The new edition - ISBN 0007193580 - is available from Amazon.co.uk at £4.99, or very cheap from Amazon's "used & new" sellers. - I shall review this shortly..

Cobber Budgies Review
This little book distinguishes itself in being focussed firmly on how to meet the needs of budgerigars -- as one might expect from the RSPCA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, UK). It emphasizes the responsibilities of pet ownership, while providing a nice, all round introduction to budgerigars.

A fill-in page for you to add your own budgerigars' photo's and records is a nice feature, particularly for children.

There is only one shortcoming of note, namely the lack of any mention of the need for animal /complete protein during breeding or moulting. The introduction mentions that moulting seems to be very debilitating for a short while -- an obvious reference to protein deficiency, unrecognized by the author, and so easily preventable.

The photographs are lovely, though this small book seems a bit out of its depth on the subject of colour varieties.

All things considered, this attractive, budget book should be helpful to most budgerigar keepers, and is a good first read.