I received "The Ultimate History of Video Games" in the post today, and its pretty epic. 624 pages of history. I tried reading the pre-VCS stuff, but I found it too boring, and that's an era I'm not interested in. One problem is that the book was published just as the Xbox and GC were launching in the States, so its quite old, and doesn't include important recent gaming events, such as sale of Rareware, the Phantom and various other bits of videogame history from earlier this decade.

It is pretty comprehensive about the 1983 crash, the Jaguar, 3DO and the demise of Sega, so that will be fun to read. All in all, for £10, its worth it.