The only book worth reading for me is Tactics in the Chess Opening 4. Lovely games which summarise the state of the art! But it may not contain enough words for some. 

@Slates: Incidentally I was just looking at 5. Bf4 0-0 6. e3 Nbd7 7. a3 in CBM 116, a survey by GM Schandorff (he says White can play for two results), while 7. c5 is covered latest NIC yearbook 82. Black's position isn't fun to play in either case, and there's an easier way to get a draw: Kramnik's 8... Bg6 in the Slav!

Regarding McDonald's book, which I'm thinking of buying, does he spend much time with the Alatortsev? (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4) ? When I play the QGD I play it this way and usually use 5...Nf6 rather than 5...c6, although neither Janjgava or Sadler (or GK's DVD, for that matter, which iirc concentrated on 5...c6, rather oddly given GK's use of 5...Nf6) convinced me of the best way for Black to go here. 

Other than that I like the Tartakower, but again could never really decide on 11...c6 or 11...c5 in the mainline, and couldn't find sufficient encouragement/guidance on either approach via the other books mentioned despite the theoretical coverage.  I'm guessing McDonald doesn't delve into this too much as the book is obviously not as theoretical as, say, Janjgava (!), but instead of the variation-laden approach does he have space to talk about respective strategies for example?

My final issue with the QGD was that 5.Bf4 seemed to be hard to face, and I liked 5...0-0 6.e3 Nbd7 although Sadler gave it only a few lines of coverage and I didn't feel well prepared to play it in view of the amount of White players who seem to use it nowadays. Does McDonald look at this line at all?  Janjgava doesn't cover it at all. 

Thanks if you can answer any of the above, or simply tell me anything else about the book.  I like McDonald as an author, and wonder of the book is a worthwhile addition to Sadler's excellent title, which I've recently looked at and been tempted to try some more QGDs after a period of infidelity...

Basically the opening can be categorized as a classical opening. It wants to set up a tough and solid roadblock infront of white and first after reaching equality you go for the win.

Remember what Tal said :"When the game is equal black is better!!"

Learn the QG from Sadlers book. The book is very instructive. If someone is not able to understand the QG after reading the book...then there is probably not much to hope for.

see inside the book 

http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Gambit-Declined-Matthew-Sadler/dp/1857442563/ref=pd...

After you feel that you understand the opening VERY well then I recommend GM Lasha Jangjavas book

QGD&Catalan for black. A repertoire for black. Very solid stuff.  But poor in explaining ideas. Sadlers book give you the ideas.

He reccomends the move order  1.d4 d5 2. c4 e6  3.Nc3 Be7 to avoid giving white the pleasure to play the best form of the exchange variation. Even though he also has a chapter on the QGExchange variation with 3...Nf6. 

If white would find a stronge move against his recommended variations.....dont worry...Jangjava backs up with alternatives.

A book for serious players.


Here you have a link 

http://www.gambitbooks.com/books/qgcat.html

There you can find a sample PDF file to look inside the book.

Then you have Kasparovs DVD on the QGD. Very interesting. He says the openng is very and important.

I'm sorry for evading your question a bit, but Mathew Sadler wrote an excellent book on the subject a few years ago, called (I think) The Queen's Gambit Declined.  It'll probably answer all your questions.