Michael Jackson's Whiskey

This book has some similarities to his "Complete Guide", but is distinct in a few important ways. First and foremost, it covers Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Japan. For Scotland, it has both single and blended.

In each country's section, he covers the most well known distillers and a few side charms that you may not see many places. There are fewer tasting notes on a fewer number of expressions, but it's made up for by great details and history on the distilleries themselves along with pictures.

If you're looking for info on some harder to find single malts, the "Complete Guide" is the way to go. For info on the widest variety of whiskies from various countries, this is a gem.

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch

This is quite possibly the greatest book on single malt scotch you could find. The first 70 pages do a fairly good job of describing the process of making whisky, what sets scotch apart from other whiskies, different scotch regions, some history, musings and much welcomed help on independent bottlers.

There then follows about 350 pages of reviews organized by distillery. While no book could hope to review every single whisky one might find in the world, this covers every major and mid-major distillery with all their 'typical' whiskies and some rarer ones reviewed with pretty detailed notes.

The only minor complaint is that it doesn't cover blended scotch or any other kind of whisk(e)y. Then again, since the title says "Single Malt Scotch", this is what I would expect. A perfect intro to the world of single malts.