Good guide book for PCH

California also has a mile by mile advertising for at least the 2-3 most northern counties

Can't help with the CA sections but once you hit Oregon on 101 stop at the first visitor center ( if you haven't got one earlier and pick up a "Mile-by-Mile Guide" for the OR section of 101. It is extremely useful as you travel that coastal road.
Washington section of 101 spend quite a bit of 'time' away from the coast but some great places we like to visit in WA are Ilwaco and Long Beach, at Raymond swing west on 105 for the coast to Aberdeen.Ocean City is unique. Then north and back to the coast at Queets and north. At Forks (just north) take 110 west to LaPush. The native tribe have a very nice CG there.
At Sappho take 113 and then 112 out to Neah bay. If you are up to it take the boardwalk out to Cape Flattery! back on 112 east to Port Angeles and Sequim/ Olympic National park. then south along the Hood canal to Olympia and I 5.
Have a great trip on one of our favorite drives!
John

From San Diego to Malibu is mostly crowded city driving. From Malibu to Oxnard it on the coast so you get ocean on your left until Point Magoo NAS. There it merges with 101 and you get more time with the ocean on your left until Gaviota where 101/1 turn inland. There is an off ramp for 1 that goes through the inland commumities of Lompoc and Guadalupe then 1 reunites with 101 in Santa Maria.

You are inland until Pismo Beach where you get an ocean view for a couple miles. In San Luis Obisp get off on the Santa Rosa St. exit (Morro Bay). That is where 1 leaves 101 for the coast (15 miles away). From Morro Bay to San Simeon the road it very good, no trouble for any size vehicle. Once past Ragged Point (about 5 miles north of San Simeon) the road narrows and has lots of curves. From this point on is where some people will not take large vehicles and others who are more comfortable with their rigs have little or no concerns.

Time of year here is also a factor. Spring and summer tends to have dense fog for days at a time. Fall and winter are less likely to have long periods of fog. Campgrounds are moatly state and national parks with a few private parks.

Once into Monterey the road opens up again and is not so curvy and narrow. From this point I'm not as familiar as the middle portion of the road.

Safe trip.

You could try Google and spell out the name of the road:

Pacific Coast Highway Guidebook

Many choices there. Same search in Amazon gives a wide variety of materials. Some of them allow you to look at sample pages.

You might also try a search for mile-by-mile Pacific Coast. Also look for coastal access guides.

One fabulous resource for California is the California Coastal Records Project. http://www.californiacoastline.org/ You can see aerial views of the entire coast.

If you do a Google search for California Highway 1 you'll find many websites dedicated to the highway some only report on sections others have end to end descriptions.

There have been articles in Sunset and National Geographic magazines regarding the trip usually from San Luis Obispo on up.