"The Vanishing Trout" is an excellent book. I bought a replica copy of the original at Flyfishers Paradise. I have read it twice. If you are just beginning to fly-fish, you have a lot of great reading in front of you. I particularly like Robert Traver's "Trout Madness." There are just so many, it's hard to say where to begin. I have accumulated a modest fly-fishing library of a couple hundred books, but some of them are lousy rip-off's. For instance, I just plunked down 20 bucks for "Streams of Consciousness" by Jeff Hull. When I glanced at the chapter titles before buying it, I thought it was going to be mainly about trout fishing, w/ a few bonefish/permit tales thrown in; instead, it is an examination of the author's psyche, with the beginning chapter telling us about his escapades with females at age 16. Who cares? Don't buy it, unless you are more interested in psychological problems, a family death, and other such personal problems than in reading about fly-fishing.
Anyhow, there are lots of good fly-fishing books out there. But, let the buyer beware! There are rip-off's, too.