I've been underwhelmed with most of Alton Brown's books, though his book on equipment (_Gear for your Kitchen_) is pretty good.

Maybe I'm an overly intuitive cook, but I feel recipes are just snapshots* , and once you have a feel for the rough proportions + know how your ingredients behave, largely unnecessary. A good recipe won't always work (maybe it's really humid, the eggs are unusually small, etc.), and IMHO cooking is about sensing and adjusting.

* Outside of baking or a few other niches, which depend on carefully executed chemical reactions etc.