If I had the twice the cash I have now, I'd probebly go for Lightwave. If I had twice the cash as Lightwave, I'd go for 3DS Max.If I had twice the money for Max I'd buy Maya.
Lightwave is excellent software. It can do just about everything you need for games.(Movies,uvmapping,modeling,animation,probebly more I can't list.)
Quote: "LightWave 3D’s Modeler has long held the title as the world’s best polygonal modeler; game developers find this a major weapon in creating efficient, yet great-looking, models for fast, exciting game-play. Capabilities such as UV tools, bone systems with weight maps, integrated vertex map painting, motion and texture baking, and more, make game development much easier and faster."
Just a little section I quoted from the lightwave site.
http://www.newtek.com
A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.