There are several versions of the Paleo diet/lifestyle with some general common themes. Firstly is to eliminate as much processed food as possible especially refined sugars/fructose. Next thing is no grains especially wheat and other gluten grains. The other big thing is no industrial seed oils like corn, soybean, canola oils etc. fats only from animals, coconut oil, butter/ghee and olive oil. There is much more to Paleo but after you get used to these 3 basic steps then tweak/adjust the other aspects of Paleo to fit your goals and lifestyle.
After 1.5 years doing Paleo I only eat salads when I'm dining out, rarely eat any nuts.... they make me bing too much so I generally avoid them, and maybe eat one piece of fruit on some days. Mostly I eat twice a day about a half a pound of meat or fish per meal with mixed vegies with some extra helpings of squash or sweet/white potatoes after a workout. I rarely eat chicken or pork and stick to eggs/beef/lamb/fish.... also make sure I get plenty of fat in my meals except the meal right after a run/workout and that meal is carb heavy and lower fat. I also have one day/meal a week where I eat/drink whatever I feel like no matter if it fits Paleo or not... also when dining out with friends/family I do not get too anal about sticking to Paleo but I don't eat out very often. I do eat some dairy like butter, cream, cheese and rarely milk.
I haven't checked out any Paleo cookbooks but there are several out there just search around on the net for those... some of the Paleo forums have a lot of recipes also. It seems limited at first but after a while it became easy for me its just a matter of trying out different ways to cook meat and vegies, it does pretty much force you to prepare your own food since there is not much healthy store food that comes pre-made. You can get what you want out of Paleo if you put in the effort trying different things till you find what works.
