This is nice books on figs that has been around for a couple years. It's called in English the fig tree step by step. It is written in French. My French is very rusty but I was able to understand most of it. It's written by Pierre Baud and he describes his top favorite fig varieties. This book is sold at a reasonable price of 14 Euros plus shipping. I purchased mine from Amazon france. You can find it here
Baud describes growing figs in france and mentions cold hardiness of the different varieties. The book includes beautiful pictures of the top fig varieties Baud has.
He mentions fig diseases, fig propagation, as well as pruning. It's a great book for beginners. It definitely helps to know French but the pictures themselves speak for themselves.

You know all I want is that many of my plants look like that shown in the bottom half of the book cover with black fig fruits.  Heavenly !
May be in some unusually warm sunny year here. I am not sure if it is probably possible.

how many of you have this book, and how do you like it? i already have pons book and looking for something with more information on more common figs that we grow. 

I've had this book for years. It's my fig bible.
Some of its contents can be found on Mr Baud's internet site which is in French
and in English, too.
http://www.fig-baud.com

Interesting note on the website in English - it says that grafting is not usually done because it is difficult to achieve - that seems incorrect based on the reports of some forummers here.

The rest of the limited English section seems useful.

probably based on his experience. and fig is rather easy to root, so not much need for grafting. 

Seems like a must-have book for us fig lovers.

just received the book. compare to pons book, it's rather light. however, the book does contain more common figs that we deal with. there are some information on what seems to be pruning and so on, but i don't read french. pons books is in spanish and that i can read some what (7 yrs of spanish is paying off.. finally.. ). i guess i'll be using google translate a lot in next few weeks. 

Baud has some good cultural information in his book, I don't read french so it takes me some time to translate it.  I used his soil mix in the book but it is somewhat heavy so I will try adding lava rocks into the mix next batch.  This is make the pots heavy but will make huge improvement on the drainage as well.

I keep hoping that someone will take the time to scan it, use OCR software, and then translate it.  Maybe it's something I'll do when I have time.

        Mr. Baud's book 'Le figuier pas a pas' pretty well condenses what a fig collector should know about cultivating his figs.
I do get frequently to it , looking for information.

To me it is  the most complete written/illustrated document to guide a conscious fig guy how best  grow and enjoy his figs
In his book he deals mainly with the essentials, be they diversity or the good practices.

He advises on the varieties for the different regions and climatic conditions without going to the extremes of showing ALL sorts/types of figs

I do not think he had in mind a much heavier book.

Have got recently his five-folded brochure (French) which condenses pretty well the fig basics as well as providing a number of good quality pictures of several varieties as recommended for the small orchard, backyard, bigger orchards, potting, and a section devoted to the collector, enhancing the varieties of particular interest, their origins,.. like,

- late ripeners,
- fruit for September,
- the best for brebas,
- biferous with delicious main crops,
- figs to dry,
- figs with deep red pulps
- figs with exquisite leaves.. etc

which I think to be of great interest and opportunity
I am attaching pictures of this last page which he calls 'Le coin du collectionneur'  or 'The collector's corner'

Francisco

always wanted to learn french.. and japanese.. i should have done that when in school. i stuck to spanish and italian since i like their food better.. hey, man's gotta know how to order their beer.. right? "uno mas por favor.. si, ceveza!"

Pete,
If you learned Spanish and Italian it will be very easy to go into and understand (first)..then read/speak french. Similar roots (Latin) not much diff grammar and the vocabulary has a common sourcing.
Just a little effort and you will be surprised..

Francisco