Outdoor cook, know thyself.

Do not approach this season's bumper crop of cookbooks about grilling and barbecuing before assessing your own tolerance for:

Dreamy odes to ribs, rubs, mops, and smoke

Lectures, often stern, on the proper methodology

Sentimental childhood memories and unbridled zeal for the subject matter

Photos of whole pigs or lambs on spits that, if seen by children (and some adults) might instantly turn them into vegetarians.

The world of outdoor cookbooks is as vast as the American suburbs, a hotbed of summertime basters and briners, so make these determinations carefully, be it a Father's Day gift you are seeking, or just an addition to your library. Especially if what you are mostly looking for are interesting recipes to make for family and friends in the backyard.

Preeminent grilling experts Bobby Flay, Chris Schlesinger, and John Willoughby now have lots of company.

If, for example, you do not have the time or disposition to study before cooking, pass over the work of Gary Wiviott.

Wiviott calls himself a "barbecue life coach." His Low and Slow: Everything You Know About Barbecue Is Wrong (Running Press) lays down laws in boot-camp style. Wiviott even includes a quiz, with orders that too many wrong answers necessitates rereading the chapter.

Wiviott's is an excellent book for a person intensely interested in perfecting an existing passion for outdoor cooking - either to delight guests or to torment others with barbecue snobbery.

Similarly fervent but less Marine-like is Adam Perry Lang in Serious Barbecue (Hyperion).

Lang - who is pictured throughout, along with chunks of wood, hunks of meat, and whole pigs - tells a tale of deserting New York's haute-cuisine scene to research and preach the gospel of slow outdoor cooking and grilling.

He helpfully discourses on every aspect of grilling and barbecuing. His recipes range from quick and easy to all-day affairs.

Some are routine, as with a skirt steak with garlic and cilantro, but many surprise with creative but not outlandish twists. For example, Lang's grilled peaches dipped in - believe it - brandy and Jell-O granules before they hit the fire are delicious and fun.

I must also admit devotion to any cookbook author who includes recipes involving breakfast pork. Lang's most intriguing and tasty is Caramel Smoked Bacon, which puts sugared and flavored bacon strips over indirect heat for a couple of hours. Forget chips and salsa, this is what I want to snack on at summertime get-togethers.

Sitting opposite these two cookbooks on the barbecue/grilling wheel are what could be called the "Oh, Whatever" outdoor category because of their presentation and content: short on advice and long on recipes.

Among these are Thomas Feller's Barbecue (Octopus), a compilation of nonsurprising recipes - no lectures - in a gimmicky matchbooklike case; and Dad's Awesome Grilling Book by Bob Sloan (Chronicle), a collection of recipes that are mostly tame enough to be eaten by kids who gave it on Father's Day.

In between these two extremes are plenty of new cookbooks packed with recipes and ideas that improve upon the fallback method of slapping unadorned protein on the grill.

Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book, by Chris Lilly, for example, offers many pit-master tips, an easy-reference lists of rubs, and advice on wood selection (rotate your woodpile and use only what's been seasoned for four months).

Pecan-Crusted Pork Tenderloin Pinwheels With Carolina Mustard Sauce is a good example of a doable, relatively speedy, and appealing recipe. (It also includes bacon.) Lilly, who heads the Decatur, Ga., restaurant called Big Bob Gibson's, notes that the quickly cooked cylinders can serve as appetizers or entrees. The book also includes a method of drying apples for eight hours over indirect heat.

Emeril Lagasse's take on the subject, Emeril at the Grill (Harper Studio), is not just the celebrity chef throwing his New Orleans cred on another cookbook. After the briefest introduction on tools, smoking, and grill maintenance, Emeril provides an engaging collection of recipes with photos that make you want to try them. From Squash Ribbon Salad With Goat Cheese to Vietnamese-Style Grilled Pork Po'boy to Cilantro-Tequila Grilled Chicken, he updates old favorites with tasty world flavors that stretch far beyond Creole. And for the most part, these recipes are relatively simple to prepare for impressive results.

Weber's Way to Grill: The Step-by-Step Guide to Expert Grilling by Jamie Purviance instructs in both charcoal and gas cooking and features step-by-step photographic guidance on basic techniques - trussing a chicken and, significantly, how to cook a turkey on a grill.

Many recipes are simply grilled but enhanced by imaginative sauce toppings, such as the timely Pomegranate-Orange Drizzle.

For devotees of Cook's Country magazine and regional cuisine, check out Cook's Country Best Grilling Recipes (America's Test Kitchen, 2009). A ring-binder-style book, it has appeal for newer outdoor cooks.