Books on Germany, Austria, Scandinavia

Which books would you recommend for an in depth look/study of Scandanavia and Germany and Austria? I want to go, but I want to know if they are worth going to and why and so forth.
Kemi

Kemi, this is an extremely broad question, but I can answer in the affirmative that these places are ALL well worth visiting! Unfortunately, there are not a great deal of travel literature style books for any of them, but of course there is a plethora of cultural and historical books on all. Most of the books which I will list here are a bit dated but still worth perusing if not reading. I do not know if they are all still in print. Nor do I know your taste--do you have the patience to read works of history, or to read old travelogues? That sort of thing...

Austria:
Vanished Empire by Stephen Brook
Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914 by Frederic Morton

Germany
The Germans by Gordon A. Craig
Germany: The Empire Within by Amity Shlaes
The File: A Personal History by Timothy Garton Ash

Scandinavia
Night Times and Light Times: A Journey Through Lapland by David H. Jones
Last Places: A Journey in the North by Lawrence Millman

Now obviously there are literally hundreds of books for each region. But if I were you just wanting a quick and general background, I'd check out all the relevant APA Insight Guides. They are dense with photographs, history, essays on culture, and so forth. If we had Travelers' Tales books for any of these places, those would be the first I'd recommend because there's nothing like reading about other people's travels and travails and triumphs for sorting out your own desires.

We do have one book which has some wonderful chapters on parts of Scandinavia: Storm by Allen Noren. It's a terrific book about a motorcycle journey around the Baltic Sea, and a relationship that must weather, well, the storm. Well worth reading. Here's the link: http://www.travelerstales.com/catalog/storm/

Hope this helps a bit.