Books for a budding baker?

So, I have decided that I want to become a better baker. Although I have mastered the art of the chocolate chip cookie, and sometimes I even get adventurous and bake a pie, I have set a goal of trying to teach myself to bake more complicated things.
As an aspiring baker, to which books should I turn to teach myself? I want to learn how to bake more complicated cakes, pies, pastries, and desserts...and probably not bread. I think learning to bake a great, beautiful cake would be wonderful.
Any suggestions or advice? Any tools I should buy that will become indispensable? Any ba

Book recs

That time of the year again to sit down and read a couple of my favorites.
Kem Nunn is an incredible author, I like all of his books with the exception of "tapping the source" which was later a foundation for some HBO series, John from cincinnati or something.
That being said:
The Dogs of Winter and Tijuana Straits are two books that anyone with half of an adventurous spirit should read.
They are blue collar books, nothing over literate about them.
You can thank me later.

Start with magazines and books

Buy some books or magazines on landscaping and gardening, and start cutting out the articles and photos that you like best.
Then, if you can, meet with a Landscape Designer, talk about your ideas and your budget, and the best way to implement them. A good Landscape Designer will be able to give you a quote on the estimated amount of time & money it will take to implement your dreams, as well as suggest contractors that can do the work, either all at once, or over time.
Or, if you are more adventurous, you can do it yourself. But you have to start with a plan, and some basic knowledge about what kind of plants grow best where you live, etc.

One of my favorite books (no Hitler nor OBL)

Ready to endure 130-degree heat, wade across swollen rivers, ward off poisonous snakes, and deal with four feisty camels,
Robyn Davidson set out on a solo trek across the Australian Outback. Her 1,700 mile journey began as an expression of independence and quickly turned into a struggle against the forces of nature and civilization. Tracks is the compelling story of Davidson's extraordinary courage and her odyssey of discovery and transformation.
'It's all very well to set off on a train with no money telling yourself that you're really quite a brave and adventurous person, and you'll deal capably with things as they happen, but when you actually arrive at the other end with no one to meet and nowhere to go and nothing to sustain you but a lunatic idea that...