Ive got the older "How to Build Plastic Aircraft Models," and I doubt theres a better, more comprehensive book around. You can find them on alibris.com for $3-3.50, right now.
As for masking there are only two things you really need and one or two "nice to haves":
ESSENTIALS - Low tack tape and rubber cement/ Maskoid.
I use blue tape and I rub it on my pant leg prior to use. This breaks the adhesive and makes it less aggressive. I use the one inch stuff and just CUT the thinner strips I need for edging with a razor blade on glass.
Rubber cement or Maskoid is used to fill in the framed areas on canopies and other small areas. But you must thin it, first. you can buy thinners for it, but they are really just hexane. The best place to get that is in a Coleman camp fuel can... $6/GALLON at Walmart!
To use it, you frame an area with tape strips then fill it with thinned R-C, using a brush. Works good, lasts a long time.
Maskoid: this is latex rubber, dissolved in an alcohol/acrylic base. If you dont like R-C and hexane this is for you. It's used by airbrush and watercolor artists to mask on paper and can be found in art stores. It is used the same as R-C, but is costly and doesnt last too long in the jar.
TIP: R-C and Maskoid make great chipped paint masks. Paint the area silver first. Then, with thin R-C or Maskoid, dab at the silver with a fine brush in the pattern you want. Let eh mask cure for a few hours and then over paint with your color coats. When the color coat has cured, gently rub off the R-C or Maskoid and voila! - a nice, chipped paint simulation
NICE TO HAVES - Sticky tack adhesive and Parafilm M
The first ones above are old school - this is newer. Sticky Tack is that adhesive used to hang posters and stuff on walls. It's a dough-like putty and goes by a lot of names and it is removable - low tack, in other words. You can use it in snake-like strips to edge large areas and then use the rubber cement to adhere area masks to it, cut from paper. This gives you a nice feather edge and works good on masked airframe jobs, armor and other large area masking tasks.
TIP: Use rolled masking tape as edge adhesive for paper masks. This gives s feathered edge, the tightness of which is controlled by how thickly the tape is rolled. Sticky Tack also is useful for this, if rolled out thinly and evenly and then cut into little adhesive bits for the paper mask. Just place the sticky bits of tape or S-T on the model, about 1/16-1/8" back from the paper's edge.
Parafilm M is a cover film used in laboratories. It sticks, like kitchen plastic wrap, to most anything when you stretch it out. It has almost endless uses and you only need to experiment with it a little to see what I mean. The challenge with it is GETTING some. It's costly and is uncommon except in labs, where it's used to cover open containers. If you can get some, it lasts forever and will prove invaluable.