Strange how quickly things slip beneath the radar these days, as a kid Paul Brickhill's "Reach for the Sky" and "The Dambusters" were staples for anyone interested in flying, esp WW11 stuff. I recently introduced an aircraft mad kid to the former and found that despite the slightly dated language and concepts it went down as well as it ever had. Slightly more recent and a fictionalised version of events in South East Asia are Stephen Coonts' "Flight of the Intruder" and "The Intruders"
+ 1 Chickenhawk
and just to prove that there are very few new ways to kill yourself or break an aircraft, Flying Magazines various "I learned about flying from that" compilations.