Just a disclaimer I've been parenting 10 years and I'm a bit prone to overthinking - take from this what you want.
I dunno about reading and stuff. I loved reading and stuff when I was pregnant but as for whether it made me more prepared? I don't know. In some ways, I think I was lucky that I went down a rabbithole of attachment parenting stuff, since it did prepare me for what newborns tend to be like and want, and gave me "permission" if you like to do things like co-sleeping, hold the baby all the time, breastfeed every hour of the day etc, and I think if you've been reading more routine type or "baby manual" kind of books they often give off the air of "If you just follow this procedure exactly then your baby will sleep and be angelic and if you get it even slightly wrong then you've doomed it and it's all your fault" when really, the baby hasn't read the book and doesn't have a clue what's going on because it's all bright and noisy out here and why the hell are you shhhhing me? And I think those books can absolutely set you up for failure (or at least feeling a lot like a failure).
OTOH. A lot of attachment parenting books, especially those which were out 10 years ago (I think modern ones are a bit better? Maybe?) have this air of superiority, of "Our way is soooo much more enlightened than the mainstream parenting way" and set you up to feel like you're in some weird attacked camp. Online AP groups don't help this perception, and I got really stuck in that mindset for years and years, and it really blocked me from being able to take on board advice from different angles and mindsets and as a consequence I really walled myself in to using specific things which fit the "method" rather than working out what felt right for me and what felt right for my child - it was a bit nuts. I was also feeling really out of place in a lot of parenting contexts because I was a young mum and I didn't really know what I was doing as an adult let alone as a parent and my only real context for life was school - so in hindsight, I was trying to get an A+ at parenting by reading books - and parenting DOES NOT work like that.
What is helpful - read about facts, not methods. If you want to breastfeed, read everything you can get your hands on about how breastfeeding works, but ignore everything which tells you things like how often and how long and in what position, because these things are largely irrelevant. Read the books which are hugely AP and the books which are sneered at by the AP crew and the random book you find at the library and feel around and see what consensus you find and you'll develop a sense of what's good information and what's a load of rubbish and where to double check when you're not sure. And don't expect any of it to be of any use in the first 24 hours after birth. It doesn't help then - you're too frazzled and you need to ask your midwives, but it will help later, and it might help to make sense of those first 24 hours later on, especially if they don't go well.
Read about normal child (especially infant, neonatal) development and what to expect. If you understand why they are doing something infuriating it doesn't always make it easier, but at least it means you're less likely to try some bonkers method which is just likely to make everything worse. It does help you keep things in perspective and might give you a clue when it's likely to get easier.
Anything that tells you what is normal or what to expect is likely to be helpful.
Anything that tells you what to do is somebody's opinion, and should only ever be treated as a suggestion, because it might not work for you. Unless it has a "why" behind it and that "why" is backed up by good evidence - but even then the evidence is usually better information than the what to do anyway.
I have read a ridiculous amount of parenting books and the best are these, IMO:
How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk (Also the Little Kids one - which might be best to start with - but either of these you can put off for now)
The No Cry Sleep Solution (the Newborn one is also lovely and more immediately relevant, I'd probably wait for the re-release of the original because I think she's going to write out some of the "AP camp" stuff.)
Birth Skills (but do the exercises!)
The Food of Love (but other BF books are also useful, if the cartoons aren't your style, and you can also get away with websites)
What Mothers Do - If you buy no other book - just buy this and leave it by your bed and when you're having an "I'm a total failure" moment open it at a random page and read.
Websites:
Kellymom - weird name but top notch on breastfeeding info
The Lullaby Trust - safe sleep guidelines
BASIS infant sleep - more researchy, in depth info about safe sleep and normal sleep
Lots of people like the Wonder Weeks app - but take it with a pinch of salt. If you've been using a pregnancy tracking app, don't bother with the baby tracking ones which follow on - they are not as good.
Do a paediatric first aid course if you can. Ask your midwife.
Most important preparation tip: Find a group of mums due at the same time as you, within 2-3 months is ideal - IMO NCT or similar private (small group) antenatal is invaluable just for this - if you don't want to, try courses like NCT Early Days/Bumps and Babies, coffee mornings for pre-crawlers, breastfeeding support group, baby massage or even the bloody NHS weaning talk and then STALK EVERYONE, um, I mean, suggest setting up a Whatsapp chat/Facebook group/group text/group email chat to "keep in touch" and then be the pushy one who follows through on it. If you cannot do this locally then join your MN birth month thread, but ideally you want to do it locally as well. The moral support of everyone going through the same things at roughly the same time is fantastic. Your husband won't get it quite like other women do. Your friends without kids won't get it at all and your friends with older kids will have forgotten as they are not in the intensive period any more and you will feel like you are bothering them. You need a support group.