One book that has not been mentioned yet is The Complete Diver: The History, Science and Practice of Scuba Diving by Alex Brylske. Not as encyclopedic as the title might suggest, but it does touch on a lot of different topics. Brylske brings the skills of a magazine writer and the knowledge and experience of a marine scientist who's been diving for many years.
Another book by Brylske, which I liked a lot, is Beating the Bends. My guess is that it is not as detailed as some of the more recent, more technical books (which I haven't read so I have to guess), but I thought it gave an excellent treatment of the topic.
I have been working my way through the most recent edition of the NOAA manual, and I admit to being a bit disappointed with it. It's unduly expensive, particularly for a work produced by a government agency at taxpayer expense, and I'm not that interested in a lot of the information (such as surface-supplied diving, public safety diving, and the like). For the chapters that I am interested in, much of what is presented is available in other books with better writing, though there is information that I haven't seen elsewhere.
As a side note, I bought the whole package, which includes the NOAA dive table cards. THE DIVE TABLE CARDS ARE WORTHLESS. To being with, they are smaller than the PADI RDP card, and on top of that, all chart 1, 2, and 3 are all on the same side. As a result, the times for surface intervals are in microscopic font. It's hard to read them sitting at a desk with a bright light, glasses on, and using a ruler (to avoid going over the wrong row or down the wrong column). I can't imagine anyone being able to use them on a boat.
I recently finished Diving Science (post #5), and while there was a ton of new information in it, I can't give it a "rave review." There was a little too much detail on why other mammals can dive longer than humans, and there could have been more detail about human physiology (some of which, for example, is presented in the NOAA manual but not in Diving Science). The writing tends to be academic in style. Overall, it's well worth your while to read, but, sorry, I'm not raving about it. I'd give it four stars out of five.
+1 on The Certified Divers Handbook. Well written and covers a lot of ground. Five stars for anyone who is not a diver with a lot of experience.
As for Shadow Divers and The Last Dive, they are must-reads in my book.
