Amadan na Briona

This is a go classic, written by Kaoru Iwamoto, who has kind of an interesting history. He was one of the players of the famous "atomic bomb game" that took place in the outskirts of Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Apparently he devoted much of his later career to spreading go to the West, which is why this is one of the most well-known go books in English.

Iwamoto doesn't write with the same "personality" as Toshiro Kageyama in Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go. He doesn't want to scare beginners away. However, the amount of content in this book might be a little overwhelming for the true beginner. In its slim 148 pages, Iwamoto goes from explaining the rules and basic principles of play to some fairly sophisticated examples of life-and-death problems and joseki, and then provides a complete analysis of two of his own games. Nothing too advanced, but it's kind of like taking all of Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go series and stuffing it into one little book.

If you want just one book to start learning to play go, Go for Beginners would be a good choice. For more gradual book-learning, covering the same material but in much more detail and step-by-step, I would recommend Janice Kim's series as a starting point.