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Sorry for the delayed response. A few good general racing books are "Winning, a race driver's handbook" by Anderson, "Going faster"-Skip Barber, and "High performance driving" by Bob Bondurant. They aren't Auto-cross specific, but the concepts are the same.
Reading is helpful for many reasons: You can't learn how to drive sitting on the couch after dinner, but you can gain knowledge by reading about it. Understanding the physics of WHY a car behaves the way it does will allow you to modify your inputs to get the best out of it. For instance, which driver inputs will make a car understeer or oversteer. The theory will also help you understand suspension tuning. Like, what will installing stiffer rear springs or anti-roll bar will do?
In addition, as others have mentioned, not all the advice you receive will be good, whether from friend, competitors, or instructors. How will you know if you have no personal knowledge of the subject? You have to be equipped to filter advice, and decide what works for you.
I also agree that professional instruction is the best, and most expensive option.
Also, being a demon late-braker is the last thing to work on, and is usually the last thing a driver learns to do well. Granted,my experience is in SCCA road racing, but Auto-cross shouldn't defer too much.
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