Lots of people here are recommending "Real-time Rendering" by Haines. While an excellent book, it goes into a ton of depth and will be very difficult to read cover to cover. Many topics are irrelevant for someone new to graphics.
A much shorter book with breadth is "Foundations of 3D Computer Graphics" by Steven J. Gortler.
Comments
Lots of people here are recommending "Real-time Rendering" by Haines. While an excellent book, it goes into a ton of depth and will be very difficult to read cover to cover. Many topics are irrelevant for someone new to graphics.
A much shorter book with breadth is "Foundations of 3D Computer Graphics" by Steven J. Gortler.