final year undergraduate here. personal recommendation (note: i consider myself a typographer, not necessarily graphic designer so some bias in books):
'Elements of typographic style',
the 'looking closer' series (because critical engagement with the subject is very useful) - especially 3: good texts from history.
Herbert Spencer's 'pioneers of modern typography', just cos, yeah. Seminal.
David Crow: 'Visible signs' - all about semiotics
'Grid systems' - josef muller brockmann - the defining book on creating grid layouts. very much based on the international style though and so can appear quite dogmatic (especially the examples) but nevertheless perhaps the best book if you only wanted to buy one for grids.
(plugging my personal tutor) 'Shapes for sounds' by Timothy Donaldson. If you like type, this'll give you a framework for where the letterforms we use today have come from. more about language than type though.
Also, 'Letters of credit', walter tracy. though difficult to come by.
business side, Shaughnessy's 'how to be a graphic designer without losing our soul' is well regarded as a good read, especially if you're a student.
Print processes - you should hopefully learn these on your course anyway, though my tutor who led workshops on printing processes, substrates, and speccing work for printers recommended a book published by AVA, don't remember its name though but will be on their website.
'A concise history of graphic design' is also good - get you up to speed with the basic heritage of the profession. written by Richard Hollis.
Agree with the above post about 'About face' by David Jury. Don't have it personally but have used it for essay research and was a very good book.
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'The new Typography' is a good read, though you'll be unlikely to gain visual inspiration from it - it'll give you an insight into the thinking of one of the most influential typographers of the twentieth century. (very dogmatic, read it as a statement of the times - Tschichold himself abandoned the principles he wrote in this book later in his career.
hope that helps?
work out what kind of designer you are, then look around is my best advice. most of my bookshelf is cultural anthropology, design history, critical design writing and typographic books - thats just me; my visual stimule comes appropriate to the brief more than visual trends in design so don't really know much about "coffee table" design books
