To this day, one of my families favorite cruising guides/chart book/guide book atlas combinations is Northwest Cruising.
They printed several different versions and then went out of publication for a number of years. I saw an updated version recently, but it was on thinner paper stock. We have two versions; cruising Puget Sound to Queen Charlotte Sound and the other covers South East Alaska. They were basically a chart book about 20" x 11" wire bound. Their charts include course guides which are on the play-it-safe side of the scale, but also included a considerable amount of local historical information that covered everything from area geology, local native tribes, early American, English and Spanish history of discovery in the area, and currently available boater services at various area ports, truly a wealth of information at a glance.
My son, who is now 29, and I were out for a couple of days lingcod fishing this week and he had the Puget Sound book out both nights re-reading all the information in it that he has read since he was 8 years old. I keep looking in used marine equipment stores for copies of these books, but have yet to find one. Mine are getting pretty worn now. As much as we enjoyed them, I doubt people give them up easily.
Bottom line, you can never have enough resources, chartplotter, GPS, NOAA charts, guide books, cruising atlas, etc. My rule, they all have something to offer. Use them all, but use them cautiously.