Can you recommend a good WW1 aviation book for newbies?

Not "Canvas Falcons" This book is badly badly researched and full of holes as well as having a very strong bias to it. Besides others mentioned, Horses Don't Fly is a new book out that is really a great read. If you can find copies from Vintage Air series "Aces and Kings" and "Rovers of the Night Sky" are easy reads and quite enjoyable.

[Vigilant]

I would second the warning about "Canvas Falcons" by Stephen Longstreet. If you are going to start you may as well start somewhere accurate that will provide a good framework for later reading. For the same reason you should leave They Fought for the Sky by Quentin Reynolds and that other potboiler (name escapes me) by Richard Townsend-Bickers firmly in the bargain bin where they belong!

Vigilant

[alex_revell]

I thought I'd keep out of this, for obvious reasons, but can't let the recommendation of a book such as First of the Few go unchallenged. This book is so full of errors - fundimental ones at that, not esoteric - that I remember I took it back to the library in disgust, only three quarters read. Likewise, some of the other books people have recommended. My advice is to read the books by the people who were there. On that subject, the author of Winged Victory was there; the book is faction. But, and it's a big but, regardless of the subject matter, it's beautifully written. It has a certain amount of hindsight, of course, but many old pilots told me that it gave a really accurate picture of what it was really like for the run-of-the mill pilot as against the books written by the aces. You won't get a better evocation of time and place. Good luck with the reading - I envy you the fascinating books you will find.
Alex R