I am actually more than half way through Jeremy Birn's book, Digital Lighting and Rendering, 2nd edition, and it does touch upon specularity.  Many insightful explanations and suggestions, very informative. 

I do agree, taking a closer look at surroundings and surface, light interaction does convey a better realistic interpretation.  Television and movies are excellent sources for learning light set ups and illumination, things that we don't actually see done for staging renders.