some books that ive heard highly recommended are:

-modern techniques of recording by david miles huber(just ordered this one)
-sound reinforcement
-the mixing engineers handbook

try amazon and go into the lists that recommend these books and get an idea of what you want. as far as building a home studio, you would need to give more specifics on budget, gear you're looking at, etc. my mac has worked great for me, hate pc's. using digidesign 002, although some people don't approve very much of it, and it is expensive, it has'nt given me any problems for recording some great tracks. but the DAW is just the beginning of your setup, so ill stop suggesting stuff and let you get into it. hope it helps.

Juan