John Cook with Mac McCaughan & Laura Balance, Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, The Indie Label That Got Big And Stayed Small (2009)
Though unabashedly self-congratulatory, this book is an easy and entertaining read, and definitely worth checking out. It has great photographs, great bands, and a chapter devoted entirely to the Spoon story.
Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me (1996)
This is the definitive recollection of the early days of punk, told by the people who lived it. It walks you through the turbulent lives of the artists that greatly influenced Spoon and provided the subject matter for "The Way We Get By." This is a must-read for anyone interested in rock n' roll history in general.