I have 2 La Creuset dutch oven pans. They are awesome.

I have a few All Clad Blacks but only use them when I'm getting all serious. Otherwise I use some decent mid grade cookware. Nonstick work good for about a year if treated with great care. You can't get them as hot as other pans or you'll damage the coating over time, not great for saute. I still have a nonstick fry pan, I guess it's a bad habit that I should get over.

I have a variety of knives but only use a mid grade chef knife for everything. I dice garlic and core tomatoes with a chef knife. I would drive chefs mad on the job refusing to use pairing knives but my fine knife skills are good and I'm fast when I need to be so in the end they just let me use my chef knife and left me alone. You only "need" a chef's knife an a bread knife but there are about a million posts on the internet telling you otherwise.

I like Bittman's how to cook everything as a starting place for what I'm going to make but I have a ton of cook books and a decade+ of Cooks Magazines that I go to for ideas. Cook books are there mostly for ideas.