MCSE certified folk, which books should I read to help?

Or should I still even consider a future in IT?

Or Linux? Now that I've heard IBM dug up some patent violations made by SCO against them (read the small blurb in "LinuxFormat" magazine and it cheered me up.)

I'm unemployed and demoralized. It is not what you know, but whom you know.

I'm close to calling it quits as it is. I support over 100 Windows-based computers and along with my current tasks which just about overwhelm me, I have to install a new !&@^#%$ patch every month thanks to Microsoft's ineptitude. It's hard to make the time to do this and it takes about 8 hours to do them all (around 5 minutes to install and reboot each PC.) In September (the 11th, of course) we had a worm hit us and I had to do emergency patching on them. x(

The only reason why I consider Windows is because, in theory, it would be easier to get a job. And with over 10 years in the field I might get a job.

Obviously I'll be pitching Linux at every turn for as many management people as possible. Now that Novell is behind Linux, there's every chance of success... (We're a Novell shop.)

On edit - oh hell, half my post is now meaningless, since you posted your addition above. You already have the experience, you're just looking to add the certifications to it. In your circumstance, sometimes certifications do give a bit of an edge.

Look for books by Mark Minasi. He is the god. If you ever get an opportunity to hear him speak, don't miss it - he's wonderful.

Now, back to my original, now useless, post...
I don't hire people based on certifications, classroom work, or computers built at home. I hire based on what they've done in an actual production environment. Now, there's plenty of employers who will hire based on certs, but I've supervised too many paper MSCEs who were clueless when faced with a blue screen. They had no more idea what to do than if I'd pulled someone off the street. People with only classroom or book experience tend not to know how to do anything with older equipment, either, and in most environments (certainly in our school district), you have to support a lot of equipment that's more than 5 years old, ancient OS's, etc.

What I'd advise is, first, this isn't a good time to be looking for an IT job. There's still too many experienced dot-com casualties willing to take the entry-level jobs. Second, if you lack actual production experience in IT, consider taking a job that isn't IT, but might have some computer support responsibilities (many small companies that don't have dedicated computer support personnel are only too happy to find a new employee that wants to take on that burden). Get some real, hands-on experience however you can. Emphasize that more than certifications.

Now, I'll admit my bias here - I have 23 years of experience in the business, and no certifications. I've never seen the need to get any, and haven't been tremendously impressed by many of the MSCE's I've known. (I've known good ones, too, but they'd have been equally good without having taken the cert exams).

I'm a MSCE and A+ (and other assorted crap) and I can state first hand that
if I didn't deal with computers and configuration problems on a day to day basis, 70% of the stuff I learned to become certified would just be a lost memory.

There's SO much to know in the IT field that Folks who try to absorb it all from books will just wind up frustrated and Jobless.