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Originally Posted by akalic
Hopefully some of you can shed some light on this as this is my first time backpacking europe (france/czech/poland/hungary/austria/germany) for a month.
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I've been to all the countries in your list with the exception of Poland and Hungary. That's an awesome, solid list, in my opinion.
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1) I'm planning on getting a really nice backpacking bag (no luggage), would MEC do? I'm quite sure no one brings a rolling luggage...I don't want to.
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Yes. I went to Europe three times with a MEC bag. It was more than sufficient. Wish I had brought over a bigger bag in order to lug around some souvenirs but I somehow managed.
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2) Is it absolutely essential to book hostels before flying over? Would it make more sense to just buy a nice guide book and plan as we're heading to the next city? I don' tknow where i'm getting with this question lol, but I'm just wondering if getting into hostels are difficult or not (fully booked often)
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In my experience, only because I went for short periods of time, I booked my hostels/hotels in advance. If you do not have a set itinerary, you can always book your accommodations on the fly, pending you have a small netbook or stop by net cafes often.
I would suggest doing some preliminary research of each country/city just so you know what you're getting yourself in to but otherwise, pick up a Lonely Planet guide or what have you. There is no right or wrong in how to do this.
Some hostels
can be difficult to book depending on its popularity and time of year. Again, I highly recommend and urge you to do some preliminary research first. It never hurts.
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4) any guide books that any of you can personally recommend? I was reading some threads and Frommer's is apparently decent? Michelin? I guess the emphasis would be on a good map of hostels/hotels/attractions/foods, wait I just mentioned pretty much everything.psh..
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I've had good experience with Lonely Planet (for Prague. You can borrow mine if you want.) I found their guides to be up to date and quite accurate to some extent. I did browse through Frommer's and Michelin guides but I was more so interested in the overall layout and format. Spend some time at Chapters and just browse around. Otherwise, I've always relied on
WikiTravel. 
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3) random tips? Some of the sites I've looked at to find tips have just sent me a crap load of generic tips with a lot of ads...
Again, thanks guys
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As I mentioned, check out WikiTravel.org.
You're welcome and enjoy your trip!