<human>: Hello! A friend and I will be travelling to New York for about a week, then we will fly to LA and end up in San Fransisco somehow where I'll travel home. The entire trip will last a month, and will be without a car as neither of us can drive. We wont bring a tent either. Neither of us have been to the US before.

I've been looking around for guidebooks, specifically Lonely Planet, but a few searches quickly made me realize there are other great resources like Rough Guides. Which should I get? 

For Lonely Planet, there are so many books to choose from. Travel guides, pocket books, "Make My Day". I don't know which to choose. We haven't done much planning for the trip and we're expecting to sort of wing it once we land. Should I buy travelbooks specifically for LA, New York and San Fransicso? Or maybe exclude New York and get one for just California or the entire West Coast? (My friend will probably hit Seattle as well, and we might go to Las Vegas for example).

We'll be carrying the guide book(s) with us in our backpacks, so I assume a huge thousand page book is out of the question. We sort of just want good information on what to do once we're in the city. We will both take with us a smartphone (and possibly a tablet) so we could use that if free wifi is widely available. What are your thoughts on that?

I heard that LA is a terrible city for public transporation. Do you guys have any advice regarding that? Can we get around with taxis or Uber for a decent price?

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<bot>: Which travelbooks should I buy for a month trip around New York and California/West Coast? Should we expect terrible transportation in LA (and elsewhere for that matter)?