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Really recommending the Forgotten Voices of the Somme for a British perspective on the whole battle, including the first day. I think it's best to learn about the Somme from a soldiers' perspective and this book is a great starting point. There is a similar book called Forgotten Voices of the Great War which is a book of British solders' stories and extracts from letters regarding the whole of the war.

Also, contrary to popular belief, I really like the Pen and Sword Military books on snipers, artillery and horses as they are not as detailed as some of the books I've read but a nice bit of easy reading if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by some of the more advanced suggestions above.

I was very excited to find a copy of Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War (1991) on a local bookstore's discount table this week. The owner had dropped it from $10 down to $2 because the previous owner had highlighted some stuff in one of the chapters. The book is otherwise unmarked. It's a very good collection, and I'm particularly pleased that it contains an essay by Holger Herwig on German patriotic self-censorship in the post-war years that I seem to have occasion to cite all the time.

This is not the first time I've had good fortune in this regard -- the same storekeeper is friends with a fairly prominent Canadian popular historian, and this fellow recently liquidated a large section of his library to make room for new arrivals. This included a very, very large WWI collection, which he had used in the course of researching this.

As a consequence, I ended up buying something like twenty hugely discounted books that would not only have been useful in their own right, but which were also just full of the historian's marginal notes. I've been having a lot of fun making my way through them.

All 3 of these recommendations are good overviews. The classic about the start of the war is Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August"
Amazon
It won the Pulitzer prize for a reason. She was a journalist with a love of history and writes in a clear, flowing style that makes you want to grab the generals and statesmen by the lapels and shake the $hit out of them.

I highly recommend Don Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. I'm finishing Part V of the "Blueprint for Armageddon" which covers the war. A great overview that you can flesh out with additional reading.

Voices of the Great War. I think that would fit your needs quite well! For younger readers it provides first hand accounts woven into a loose chronological order/ topical order that are completely accessible.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Voices-Great-War-History/dp/0091888875

In general the Voices books are pretty decent.

I have a strong interest in WWI aviation, and would suggest the following books by Peter Hart for anyone looking to learn more about the air war conducted by the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force):

• Somme Success: The Royal Flying Corps and the Battle of the Somme 1916 - Overview of the Fokker Scourge and aerial tactics in 1916 (link)
  
• Bloody April: Slaughter in the Skies over Arras 1917 - Detailed look at RFC operations during March, April and May of 1917, with a strong focus on artillery cooperation and photo recon and the role they played in supporting ground operations. (link)
  
• Aces Falling: War Above the Trenches 1918 - The formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918 and the rise of massed tactics, rather than the cult of personality surrounding individual ace scout pilots. (link)
  
  Hart is a fantastic writer and draws extensively from published correspondence from pilots directly involved in the campaigns named.

This is three very good books that I've read on WW1

Storm of Steel is a good book from the German Point of view, http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Steel-Penguin-Classics-J%C3%BCnger/dp/0142437905

Her Privates We, Hemingway said that he read the book every year to remind him how it really was. http://www.amazon.com/Her-Privates-We-Frederic-Manning/dp/8087888596

Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War, I really liked this book its complied from letters the soldiers wrote and the last few chapters are about what France, Britain and the US did to honor the Unknown. http://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Story-Missing-First-World/dp/0307276546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416969906&sr=8-1&keywords=unknown+soldiers&pebp=1416969916143

German perspective

Infantry Attacks by Erwin Rommel
link
The best personal account of the war I have read. Not as well-written as Junger's book (that is also very good btw) but good for the many detailed descriptions, including sketches he made right after the events, of tactical battles he was in. Not so much about troops freezing in trenches and having no food, although there is some about that, but a lot of insight in how a small-unit officer had to act in combat and how much more was going on in battles than the stereotypical massed assaults.

Conduct of the War

Command or Control? Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies 1888-1918 by Martin Samuels (1996)
link
Very detailed analysis with good examples highlighting differences in doctrine and training before and during the war. A bit heavy, but it explains many things, and good analysis of what happened in a few battles and why.

Stormtroop Tactics - Innovation in the German Army 1914-1918 by Bruce I Gudmundsson (1995)
link
Not only about the stormtroopers, but also German (infantry) tactics in general and how they evolved. It starts out with a description of a German attack in 1940, and then goes back to 1914 to explain in detail how the tactics used in 1940 evolved.

Dynamics of Doctrine, by Timothy T Lupfer
link
This is also a description of how German stormtroop tactics evolved, but much shorter. It is worth to mention because it is available as a free PDF, and good enough that you will find it quoted in books now and then. I prefer the Gudmundsson book, but this isn't a bad (free) introduction to the topic as I remember it (was several years since I read it).

Specific Battles

Loos 1915 by Nick Lloyd (2008)
link
Very good and detailed description of the battle. Of all the books on typical BEF trench battles I read this is the one I liked the best.

Operation Albion: The German Conquest of the Baltic Islands by Michael B. Barrett (2008)
link
Amazing operation. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, amphibious assaults in the war, and it is barely ever mentioned (I had never heard about it to be honest before someone on a forum mentioned this book). It is not only the details about the many battles on land and at sea that took place, but the book also has a lot of the tragedy of the disintegrating Russian units. Much of the book is based on researching previously closed Russian/Soviet archives and I hope we will see more fascinating books on things that happened on the eastern front we never heard about.

I can recommend two. 1) politics https://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalkers-How-Europe-Went-1914/dp/0061146668. Military https://www.amazon.com/First-World-War-John-Keegan/dp/0375700455.

This book is the bible for WW1 aircraft. It lists every plane used by every nation in WW1, along with losses, battles, etc. Have a look at the reviews as they will tell you a little more.

Jane's books are incredibly detailed, the WW2 one is also amazing. I am sure there will be an interwar one.

The Jack Herris guide is also good, but not as good as Jane's

I recommended this book on another thread, but I just finished reading The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 and it is an excellent, if sometimes dry, account of the origins of WWI.

Also, All Quiet on the Western Front should be included in any WWI reading list, even if it isn't a history book. Same goes for Farewell to Arms.

To Conquer Hell- Its about the Meuse-Argonne offensive and is pretty well written. It does a nice job of showing the individual accounts while detailing the overall movement.

http://www.amazon.com/To-Conquer-Hell-Meuse-Argonne-Battle/dp/0805089152

If you are interested in German Artillery in World War 1 there is also "Steel Wind: Colonel Georg Bruchmuller and the Birth of Modern Artillery" by David T. Zabecki Ph.D.
https://www.amazon.ca/Steel-Wind-Colonel-Bruchmuller-Artillery/dp/0275947505/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1550504706&sr=1-9&keywords=Zabecki

https://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-World-War-1914-1918-Identification/dp/1906626650

Has pretty much the entire war covered. I use it frequently and most of the information is correct (some minor details are wrong, but nothing that makes the book completely useless)

To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 is by far the best secondary source on the Meuse Argonne Offensive around. Ed Lengel, who teaches now at UVA does a really good job of utilizing primary accounts to show just how grueling the battle was.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conquer-Hell-Edward-G-Lengel/dp/0805089152

It might also be worth reading or watching The Guns of August to learn more about the opening stages of the first world war.

I do have this book, by the way. But it's pretty short and sketchy (seems to be written with older children in mind) and not really what I'm looking for. The other day I read Walter Slezak's What Time's the Next Swan, which happened to have some interesting tidbits in it (though not a bunch), but he's writing from the German/Austrian experience of the war.

Since you cruise Amazon The Sleepwalkers: How we went to war in 1914 is a fantastic book about the politics leading up to the war.

Peter Hart - The Great War

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0190227354

Peter Hart has a lot of books discussing WWI from big overviews to much more detailed coverage of different theaters of the war.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/author/ref=mw_dp_a_ap?_encoding=UTF8&author=Peter%20Hart&searchAlias=books&asin=B001H9PVQ6

Martin Gilbert - The First World War

https://www.amazon.com/First-World-War-Complete-History/dp/0805076174

This is one of my favorite books on the subject of the war as a whole.

These two authors are two of the most referenced in The Great War YouTube channel, but there is so much more information in the books.

I've had to remove some links from the main post. Added here:

General works - more advanced material

You should read at least one book from the preceding section before looking at books here. They are a more advanced treatment on the topic that may include viewpoints that are not commonly held.

• The Legacy of the Great War: Ninety years on (link) ed. Jay Winter (2009)
  
  This book discusses the war in general through transcripts of live discussions between leading historians. An unconventional look at the war which ranges widely while avoiding the academic tone of most books - highly recommended.
  
  
• Forgotten Victory: The first world war - myths and realities (link) by Gary Sheffield (2002)
  
  Sheffield reinterprets the war, debunking the myths of 'lions led by donkeys' and futility which arose from popular culture and powerfully arguing that the war had to be fought, and was won by a British Army which by 1918 was the most effective fighting force in the world.
  
  
• To End All Wars: a story of loyalty and rebellion 1914-1918 (link) by Adam Hochschild (2012)
  
  This book is a narrative of the war that takes a detailed look at the conscientious objectors and the rise of the socialist movement in the context of the greater war. It is highly focused on British people and events.
  
  
• The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to war in 1914 (link) by Christopher Clark (2013)
  
  An in depth look at the origins of World War I with particular focus on Balkans politics and events such as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
  
  
• The White War: life and death on the Italian front 1915-1919 (link) by Mark Thompson (2010)
  
  Seems to be the only recent English language work on the Italian front that I and it brings to light a long forgotten front that had some of the most extreme fighting in the war.
  
  
  

  General works - personal accounts
  

  
  

• Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A new history of WWI in the words of the men and women who were there (link) by Max Arthur (2003)
  
  
• Voices From the Trenches: Letters to home (link) by Noel Carthew (2002)
  
  
  

  Online resources
  

  
  

• Trench maps
  
  
• [Military mapping of Austria-Hungary and nearby regions from 1910[(http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm)
  
  
• Australian official history of World War I incl war diaries
  
  
• Dynamics of Doctrine by Timothy T Lupher
  
  This is also a description of how German stormtroop tactics evolved, but much shorter. It is worth to mention because it is available as a free PDF, and good enough that you will find it quoted in books now and then. Gudmundsson's book is a more comprehensive resource but this one has the benefit of being online and free.
  
  
  

  Fiction
  

  
  

• All Quiet on the Western Front (link by Erich Maria Remarque (1996 reprint)
  
  The classic novel of WWI experiences
  
  
• A Farewell to Arms (link) by Ernest Hemmingway (1956)
  
  Loosely based on his own experiences, this novel helps bring the war "up close & personal".

Graves gives a good account of a personal experience of the the war from a British subaltern's point of view. Others giving the bottom up look are from the French soldier's perspective in the trenches 1915-1916 Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse free here, another from a German perspective Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger. More graphically violent than All Quiet, but more a memoir than a novel. And unlike Remarque, Jünger was a combat soldier wounded 14 times, Iron Cross 1st Class, youngest recipient of Pour le Mérite (The Blue Max) and when he died in 1998, he was last living Blue Max recipient. From the American Doughboy's perspective, there's Toward the Flame a memoir by Hervey Allen who served in the "bucket of blood" the 28th Keystone Div in the Aisne - Marne offensive and leaves you contemplating being on the receiving end of a flamethrower attack. A harrowing compilation of vignettes running chronologically through each month of the war on the Western Front is The Hazy Red Hell Tom Donovan ed. It has been described as terrifying. I'll not dispute that. A more balanced view of the experiences of the fighting men is Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A New History of WWI in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There I'm reading that right now.