Beginner Climbing Books

I have a friend that's fairly new to climbing and could use a good overall how to book. It's been years since I've cracked a book and I was wondering what people liked these days.

"How to Rock Climb" by John Long seems to be the classic, and I liked it when I started climbing, but are there new books to consider?

I miss the random selection of outdated mountaineering books my local library had when I was fourteen.

Craig Luebben's "Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills" and also "Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide"

There's always Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills, but get the
sixth edition or later (if there is one). . .

Besides SJM81's recommendations:

Freedom of the Hill is now up to the 8th edition.

The Self Coached Climber should be one of the first training books read. It is easy to get caught up in "getting stronger" as a beginning climber when the focus should be on becoming more fluid.

The Rock Warrior's Way covers the mental aspect of climbing. This becomes important when beginning to lead. The author also has a more recent book, Espresso Lessons, which I've heard good things about.

Eric Horst has long been one of the go-to authors for climbing strength training; with the 2nd edition of Training for Climbing he adds in chapters on the mental and movement aspects of climbing (thanks likely to the success of Ilgner's books).

Flakes, Jugs, and Splitters is a great introduction to the geology of climbing. After a brief general intro to geology, the book explores climbing areas around the country and explains how they got to be such great destinations.

SJM81 wrote:Craig Luebben's "Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills" and also "Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide"

The best general book I've read is Dave MacLeod's 9 Out Of 10 Climbers Make The Same Mistakes. It's less about specific techniques on how to climb and more on how to go about learning to climb.