A Pictorial History of the Carousel by Frederick Fried

This seems to be the book on carousels, one all the later books quote from and admire.

It is by far the most in-depth and informative of the carousel books I've read so far (and really, there are far fewer non-fiction books available than I would expect).

It does suffer from its age, however. It was published in 1964, so most of the photographs are in black and white, which is a great pity, given the colorful nature of the carousel.

Also, it's not particularly lively; it's worth reading if you already like carousels, but unlikely to inspire a cover-to-cover read if you don't.