Reddit reviews Cheese Primer

I'm a huge fan of Steve Jenkins' Cheese Primer because it is comprehensive but also practical.

EDIT: spelling error

My first cheese books were Murray's Cheese Handbook and Steven Jenkins' Cheese Primer.

Look for Fromage d'Affinois. It's like brie, but the milk is filtered so it's always creamy and doesn't get stinky as easily. Brie-type cheeses (soft-ripening, as they say) can get ammoniated if wrapped in airtight containers, which is to say the culture on the cheese makes ammonia as part of its normal life, and ammonia is lighter than air and usually just goes away, but if you don't let it, it builds up and makes the cheese smell/taste awful. So let your brie hang free, in other words. That's why you usually see it in fancy paper. Best brie-type cheeses, other than d'Affinois: La Tur, from Italy, is made from cow, sheep, and goat milks and tastes like you're a king/queen. Another one is Crottina, which is a general term for a wheel of cheese about the size of a marshmallow. Crottina literally means 'droppings' but it's a term of endearment. Usually goat milk, sometimes sheep milk.

Also, something that may be easier to find, is St. Andre. It's a 'triple-creme' cheese, so think brie but with even more fat. Really I'd rather call it the fanciest cultured butter on the planet, because what I really prefer to do with this cheese is replace butter in my favorite recipes, especially alfredo sauce..but you could honestly just spread it on some toast and be happy. Looks like a birthday cake.

Another cousin of the brie-type ones is the ash-ripened cheeses, so don't be put off by a little disk the size of a hockey puck that looks like it's covered in blue/green mold, it's just ash (and probably some white mold you'd usually see on Brie), and it tastes amazing.
Hmm...

There's so much out there, honestly. My state gets a new cheesemaker about once a month, and there are thousands in the world... if you really want to get a broader horizon, I say get a good book of cheeses. I mentioned the guy earlier, but there's a good author named Steve Jenkins with a nice fat book listing hundreds of famous cheeses, often with humorous descriptions, such as St. Marcellin: 'No finer cheese exists. A cheese to be worshipped' and for Havarti: "A cheese so mild that it would be curmudgeonly to say anything negative about it."

Edit: also, one of the chief cheese experiences for the newbie: whether you are interested or not in chevre, fresh goat's cheeese, get some and put it on a cracker with some jam/fruit preserves. Chevre is magical, kind of in the same way cream cheese is, which is that it doesn't care whether it's being put with savory or sweet. I've made people love goat's cheese where they had a previously declared hatred using this combination. Fancy jam helps too. We have a local company (Sidehill Farm) that makes a slew of delicious and unconventional jams, like ginger rhubarb. Mmm... ginger rhubarb jam on a chevre cheesecake (just a cheese cake replacing cream cheese with chevre...amazing)...I digress. Buy a cheese book! Jenkins, by the way, usually tells you the best brands for any particular cheese.

This might be what you're looking for: http://www.amazon.com/Cheese-Primer-Steven-Jenkins/dp/0894807625