These are some of the books I have accumulated and read, and it is not an exhaustive list by any means. Please note that I have stopped purchasing physical books and I am sticking with e-books, which may explain certain lacunae in my collection.

• Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years
  
  • Peter Haining is a well-known author in the world of Doctor Who, and this book is part of the reason. As you might infer from the title, it was published in 1988 for the 25th anniversary of Doctor Who. It has a lot of good information concerning those first 25 years, but do not expect to read anything critical beyond some mild criticism of the hiatus in the middle of Colin Baker’s run. This reads like a release from the BBC publicity department: everyone is brilliant, the decisions were all sound, and no mistakes were ever made. That said, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of any Doctor Who fan.
  • Since the Doctor at the time of this book was Sylvester McCoy, it is not surprising that he gets a little more attention than the other Doctors, but all of them are covered. In addition, there is some discussion of the various companions and many of the guest stars. Other chapters address the various merchandise you could have gotten (mostly Dalek figures), Doctor Who in the comics, and the status of the lost episodes at the time it was written (some additional episodes have been discovered since, thankfully). And the many photographs are a welcome addition. So if you see a copy, pick it up. I think you will like it.
• Doctor Who: A History
  • A good general summary of Doctor Who through the years, with stories about the production team, anecdotes, and the usual fannish stuff. If you are a fan (and I am) you will enjoy it, but don’t expect any surprising revelations. I have this e-book on my phone and it was the perfect book to pull up whenever I found myself waiting in line or otherwise needing a few minutes pleasant diversion. But if you are not a fan, I doubt you would find this interesting.
• The Making of Doctor Who
  • This is a Young Adult volume, and much of it may seem superficial, such as the summaries of the Doctor’s adventures to that point. I found a copy of the First edition, published in 1972, which was in the middle of Jon Pertwee’s run as the Doctor. A Second Edition was published in 1975 and includes some of Tom baker, and some other changes. The biggest value for having this is that it gives a lot of good behind-the-scenes material on how the rehearsals are run, how the special effects are organized, and so on. It is all at the YA level of course, but if you can pick up a copy without spending too much money I would consider it.
• The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book
  • This 1988 book is written by John Peel and Terry Nation, and Nation is the creator of the Daleks and owned all the rights to the characters (and his estate now owns them). The book covers the appearances of the Daleks in the television stories, the movies, on stage , in books and records, and in comics. There is a long section that tells the story of the Daleks as they appear in Doctor Who, but it tells the story more from the perspective of the Daleks, which is interesting. Terry Nation as co-author makes this authoritative and probably worth picking up.
• Doctor Who Handbook 01 – The First Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 02 – The Second Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 03 – The Third Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 04 – The Fourth Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 05 – The Fifth Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 06- The Sixth Doctor
• Doctor Who Handbook 07 – The Seventh Doctor
• A History: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe
• The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time Lords
• The Doctor Who Technical Manual
  • This slim volume contains some design drawings and a little bit of historical discussion. It is interesting, and if you can pick it up without spending too much money you might was well. But if you never get it, that is OK too.
• Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide
• 50 for 50: Celebrating 50 years of the Doctor Who Family
• RED WHITE AND WHO: The Story of DOCTOR WHO in America
• Doctor Who Magazine
• The Science of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: The Early Years
• Doctor Who: Shada – The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams
• Doctor Who: The Early Years
  • This large-format paperback does what the title says. It starts with Sydney Newman, the father of Doctor Who, who came from Canada to eventually wind up as Head of Drama at the BBC. He had an idea for a show about a mysterious character who traveled through time and space in a ship that was bigger on the inside than on the outside. When no one at the BBC wanted to be the producer he grabbed a young lady who had been a production assistant for him at ITV, and talked her into being the producer. That of course is Verity Lambert, who went on to a very successful career in TV and film production. Then they had to assemble a cast, and a production team, and get the show going. The book discusses all of this and is a good introduction to this historical material. This is useful, but honestly there is nothing in this that is really unique.
  • Then the book goes into discussions of selected stories from the run of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. It isn’t all of the stories, but it mostly picks the ones that are significant to get this attention. It is the illustrations that make this book something you want to have in your library if you are a fan. While there are a few color photos, most are in black-and-white, but then so was the show itself in this time. What you will particularly enjoy are the production drawings and models, and the discussion in particular of Raymond Cusick, the Production Designer for some of the most important stories including “The Daleks”. I am rating this 4 stars out of 5 and recommended for the true Doctor Who fan.
• Doctor Who: Journey Through Time
  • This is a collection of short stories, some in comic form, which read as the kind of thing you find in a fan annual, which in fact is where many of the stories came from. This started life as Adventures in Time and Space, published in 1981, which featured mostly the 4th and 5th Doctors, but with one story each for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Doctors. Then they added more 5th Doctor and 6th Doctor stories and published it as Journey Through Time. If you are a completist you will of course be interested, but for a casual fan I would say this is something you can easily skip and not miss anything of importance.

Also, you may be interested in this panel discussion of Doctor Who Reference Books for the CONsole Room 2024 Convention