I have published a number of books recently through Lulu recently and consider it an option worth considering. Quality is excellent.
Don't be afraid to have a go as there are no up front costs and there is an option to "publsih privately" - ie for the cost of a preview copy you can see what your book might actually look like - and handy for editing and proof reading prior to "going public"
Once public you can still update/amend your master copy so corrections/updates/new info may be easily incorporated.
Lulu provides downloadable templates for appropriate book sizes - "US Trade" could prove a good option.
Colour images possible - but grayscaling or selecting grayscale keeps print costs sensible - quality excellent.
One secret of success is to choose appropriate formatting "styles" for use in Word / Open Office - eg Title 1st Para DropCap paragraph bullets footnotes.... Hint look at a book from your bookshelf - it will help you deceide on style issues. (But remember to stay within your Lulu template rulers)
Lulu also scores well on the aggregators (ie getting books onto Amazon etc) -
Whilst you're at it you may want to publish an Electronic version as well as a physical version. - Amazon now accepts .Epubs so it's now quite simple to get stocked in the iStore and Amazon. Theres an inexpensive Ebook creation software programme called Jutoh - it's very capable.
Also check out the free Ebook reader and conversion software called Calibre.
All the above is for info only - there's any number of approaches to getting into print - but I do agree with the OP that there must be some great books just waiting to be written.