CCNA recommendations?

Right, going to do the CCNA exam sometime this summer, with a view to using that cert to get some better contracts, getting more hands-on experience, then eventually going for CCDP/CCNP and (after much more hands-on experience) CCIE. But first I need to bootstrap myself to CCNA to kickstart the whole process.

Any recommendations for book(s) to use for study? Which books would be considered "good" vs "waste of time"?

I'll probably be getting a small cisco CCNA/CCNP lab from http://ciscokits.com for the hands-on stuff, and going through their (seemingly) comprehensive lab book.

 

i bought this a while ago. havent had much time to really study for it, but its a great set of books. if youre taking 2 tests, icnd1 then icnd2 or if youre taking them both together, this is a great study guide.

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1587201836

 

Thanks. Guess I'll get that one then.