There are 32 books that can be read in Persona 4 Golden. Reading these books grants certain benefits, such as increasing your social stats (Courage, Knowledge, etc.) or improving the results of minigames (fishing, catching bugs).

Read books you've acquired by checking the sofa in your room. Books have from 2-4 chapters and you can read one chapter at a time (unless you've finished the Hyperspeed Reading book, in which case you can read two chapters at a time).

Reading all 32 books in a single playthrough will reward you with the "Reader King" accessory that grants +10 Magic (equippable only by the Main Character), and a bronze trophy, "Compulsive Reader."

These are all 32 books in the order they're listed in your Item inventory, so you can quickly check if you're missing any.

[_] The Lovely Man
[_] Forever Macho
[_] Man of History
[_] Man-God
[_] Farewell to Man
[_] Off Today
[_] Short on Cash
[_] Changing Careers
[_] Sensei's Friends
[_] The Final Lesson
[_] The O-Cha Way
[_] The Gentle Way
[_] The Divine Way
[_] The Ramen Way
[_] The Punk's Way
[_] Witch Detective
[_] Poly-land
[_] Guide to Pests
[_] Picross Rules!
[_] Who Am I?
[_] Expert Study Methods
[_] English Made Easy
[_] 100 Ghost Stories
[_] Office Work Manual
[_] Easy Origami
[_] Food Fight!
[_] Beginner Fishing
[_] Expert Fishing
[_] Catching Bugs
[_] World-Class Bugs
[_] Home Gardening
[_] Hyperspeed Reading

These are all the books, the dates they're available, how to get them, and their effects, listed chronologically so you can see what's available at any point in the game. Note that "The Ramen Way" doesn't have an exact date due to the conditions for obtaining it. "Yomenaido" is the Yomenaido Bookstore, located in Shopping District, South.

Generally, reading a book which raises a particular social stat will increase that stat by 3 points. Reading on a rainy night will result in an additional increase in whatever the book normally provides (one of the two for books which raise two parameters), and for books which normally only bestow a non-stat-related benefit (e.g., Catching Bugs), you'll also receive a bonus stat boost.

Reportedly, books which increase stat gains from other sources (e.g., 100 Ghost Stories) double the increase from those activities once the book has been read.

Thanks for reading my guide! Please message me about any errors, typos, or omissions in the guide. A vast majority of this information was found by Hector Madrigal, jedmist1, and wilfreda, I just compiled it into a Steam guide for easy viewing.