The Complete Book Of The Olympics

If you have been enthused about the Olympics in general by London 2012, and wish to delve deeper into the rich history of the event, there is one book which I can unreservedly recommend.  The "Complete Book Of The Olympics", by David Wallechinsky.  As far as I know, it is updated prior to every Olympiad.  This is the latest edition:

I myself have a couple of earlier editions, the latest being the 2004 one.

These books, as well as containing results and statistics from every Olympic event ever held, also have some wonderfully colourful, and often obscure stories and anecdotes from the history of the Games.  The author does not just concentrate on the legendary athletes and episodes; he also relates innumerable human interest stories from minority sports and under-reported corners of the Games.

This is the kind of book that you will find myself going back to constantly, as each subsequent read reveals another tasty morsel of information, or enlightening tale.