waldziuchna

When you register for the exam, they will send you the books. It used to be different some years ago, when you would pay for the exam registration and you could purchase the books separately, but now the price of the books is included in the exam fee. Once you pay for the exam, they will send you the books in about 10 days. Those are the CFAI books that everyone talks about. For every level, the books cover the topics described in the topic weight. For level 1, you have 6 books with 18 study sessions in total - or at least that is how the 2010 curriculum looks like.

Not everyone chooses to use the books as the primary study source. You can of course but additional materials from study prep providers, like Elan and Schweser. Their study notes are shorter than the CFAI books, and depending on their experience during the exam people will recommend to use them or not. You get the CFAI books anyway, so only you can say if they work for you.

Hope this helps.