Anything by Delia Smith is 100% reliable. Beginners cannot go wrong with her recipes, which are available online Nigella Lawson's books are well worth following, though not slavishly, for the more experienced cook;
I find so-called celebrity cookbooks to be generally very good. Often for charity, the celebs (and others) submit their favourite recipes and they are compiled into a book. Generally, they submit pretty good and often original recipes. Their anacdotes are often funny too. I have found many of these for sale at very reasonable prices on websites where second-hand books are sold. I also love the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks.
The two best cookbooks I have ever seen are The Betty Crocker Cookbook ( the BIG one) and the English translation of the Silver Spoon. You can get both at amazon. They both have great classic recipes for cooking from scratch. Of the more modern one, I like Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals series.
Look online for food blogs. You can pick and choose the recipes you want to keep (just get a binder to keep organized or save them on the computer) and you don't have to sort through all of the recipes you don't want. Also, this way you can e-mail the author of the blog if you have any questions and these authors are generally normal people so the steps are easy to follow because they offer step-by-step instructions with photos.
But, if you still want a book for your shelf, the blogs also generally review cookbooks or tell you where a specific recipe came from so you can track down the book after you know you love the food it will help you make.
Happy cooking!
Try the local charity shops, people often get books for unwanted presents and donate them. It's worth trawling through a few if only to see if a particular book is really the one you want, plus it generates much needed cash for a worthy cause.
Depends on your experience and taste. Delia is very reliable, Jamie Oliver caters for most tastes.
Why not start your own recipe scrapbook, using recipes from magazines and websites?
Some supermarkets also produce excellent free recipe cards.