Yeah, I think I remember seeing those books when I used to frequent bookstores more often. They made some amazing books dealing with all of that. I kick myself for never buying any of them. But if I remember, they were a tad on the pricey side when I was looking at them and didn't have the money.
It's really a shame that the show was never really given a chance to flourish. I know that TV is ratings based and that when it was on the air it never generated the ratings that the network wanted, but still. The show was very far ahead of it's time, so that's possibly one reason it was canceled not once, but twice. I believe that the kiss by Uhura and Kirk was the first interracial kiss ever on broadcast television. And to have a black communications officer, a Russian navigator (during the Cold War no less), an Asia helmsman, and the myriad of other people on the show, it really was ground breaking in so many ways.
I do remember seeing the thing about Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios giving the show a big break, which is very cool.
And I remember Shatner being a prima donna
but one thing I really do like is that even with the friction on the show, Nimoy and Shatner became fast friends afterwards when the show had been canceled for good, right up until the day Nimoy passed away.