CCNA Book recomendation

[abusetheforce]

Hey all, new guy around here.

I've been watching Hak5 since the beginning and lurking around here for a while but now I've got a question that I think I may be able to get a decent answer from here. I've always been interested in networking and security. With the real world fast approaching I'm starting to wonder about the appeal a BSc in physics has to the job market. My dad works for a major teleco here in Canada and he's been subtly suggesting some Cisco certs as a backup just is case. I've got a CCDA for Dummies book he had lying around since design is what he deals with. But after looking around the Cisco site the CCNA seems more up my alley(I've also never been a fan of dummy books).

So the question: Can anyone recommend a good CCNA study/prep book? If there's one thing I've learned it's that the better the learning material the better and faster the learning. I've looked around at some reviews of different books online but they don't seem overly reliable. Things like pros: "covers a lot of material, excellent practice tests, cons: many typos and informational errors" don't instill much confidence in the reviewer.

So far I'm leaning towards CCNA Study Guide by Richard Deal but as yet I'm unsure. I come from an academic background and I prefer pure, technical textbooks as opposed to "here are all the shortcuts and easy methods to pass a test" sort of guides. Any help is much appreciated.

[SmoothCriminal]

CCNA: cisco certified network associate study guide by Todd Lammle

This book does a pretty good job explaining things, makes sub netting easy.

When I took the test it threw a lot of switch questions at me, know your switches and VLAN's.

http://www.amazon.com/CCNA-Certified-Netwo...1/dp/0782143911