If you are going to buy just one book about Genetic Algorithms, an easy going overview of the whole field, then I would recommend Melanie Mitchell's "An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms".

Also of interest, despite not strictly being a book about genetic algorithms is Charles Darwin's seminal "The Origin of Species". An online, illustrated version is available from the BBC.

This is generally considered as the bible for GA researchers. David Goldberg is one of the foremost researchers in the field of GAs, he is a former student of John Holland - the father of GAs.

The book contains the complete source code for a simple GA framework. Although this code is published in Pascal, a translation to C with some added extentions is available, SGA-C. Both the example code and text is easy to follow. It is, possibly, directed more towards readers with a background in Computer Science, but assumes no prior knowledge of GAs.

After a simple overview of genetic algorithms Melanie Mitchell covers a wide range of applications from a number of different scientific disciplines, each in an easy-to-read style. Towards the end of the book, GA theory and specific implementation details are discussed, leading into a review of the future propects and challenges for evolutionary computation. Plenty of exercises are provided for the reader, but no example answers, which I find really annoying. (A critisism of many text books aimed at undergraduate students). Overall, the book definitely lives up to its title as an excellent introductory text to the field.

A concise overview of the uses of artificial intelligence, including Genetic Algorithms, in chemistry. It is aimed at undergraduate chemistry students, but you may find it interesting nonetheless. At under 100 pages (30 are devoted to GAs), there is no space for waffle. Neural Nets and other AI methods are also described, so obviously this book doesn't cover any intimate details.

Explains the use of GAs for scientific and engineering problems. Covers the selection of GA parameters in some detail. Seems a little 'thin' to me, for the price.

A good book for examples of hybrid GA-based methods.

This book mainly concentrates on practical issues, with full working examples in BASIC, FORTAN, PASCAL and C.