I was pleasantly surprised when I found this in Barnes and Noble. I was wandering around with a Chobits manga in my hand waiting for my wife to be done shopping, and I happened upon this book in the animation section..the full title is The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917. It's 550 pages of anime goodness, arranged alphabetically by title with a title and a name/studio index. What a great resource for the otaku in all of us. This thing has pretty much every series I've ever heard of and an absolute ton that I haven't. It retails for $30. I especially like the fact that it gives running times, tells how many episodes are in series, etc. It gives Japanese and American names of series whenever possible as well. It's made by our friends at Stone Bridge Press. I also have their Anime Companion and Hiyao Miyazaki books, I highly recommend those as well. =)
I've read a book on Anime from Trish Ledoux (translator for anime, ahhhh Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, any U.S. Renditions/L.A. Hero release plus a billion others. Also used to work in Animerica).
It's called the Complete Anime Guide. It runs a humble 300 or so pages. It includes in chronology every series that appeared on American TV, with indepth stories, and information. It also has a section on anime genres with what anime is (somewhat for the beginner). It then has a section of every VHS/LD release as of 1997. Yeah before DVD. It has personal comments on the releases. It also contains prices and summaries. Then it has a section for all of the American companies. I called Animeigo, now that was priceless. I was able to preorder KOR when my modem was down. ^_^ It also contained simple terms to know like Shonen, Shojo, Yakuza, and Manga.
I'll have to check out the Anime Encyclopedia you're talking about. I could crack that off in a matter of days. ^_^