On Fri, 24 Apr 2020 01:24:49 -0000 (UTC), Jinx the Minx
> wrote:

>Boron Elgar > wrote:
>> On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:34:45 -0600, U.S. Janet B. >

>>
>> I do have Clayton, but I make a Jewish style rye based loosely on
>> Beranbaum and Leader, I believe. Old, old books, all of them.
>>
>>
>
>I enjoy baking bread but I’m pretty much a novice and I’d love to perfect
>it. If you had only one bread baking book to recommend as “the one”, what
>book would it be?


Hmmm. This is hard to do because I think so many of them come with the
author's philosophy as well as instructions- the ratio of BS to
ingredients/instructions can become burdensome.

Try looking at either of these, though, by Peter Reinhart:

Crust and Crumb
The Bread Baker's Apprentice

And this one is decent, too- Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread.

I recommend looking on used book sites to find cheap copies, though.
In olden days before the plague, one could wander used book stores or
library shelves. Ah well.

And this is a "go to" website for bread bakers of any and all levels:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/