As far as reading is concerned, there are many areas of combinatorics which either didn't exist in the early 1970s or hardly existed compared to today:
*Additive combinatorics: -Terence Tao, Van Vu. "Additive Combinatorics". Cambridge University Press. revised ed. 2009
*Analytic combinatorics: -Philippe Flajolet, Robert Sedgewick. "Analytic Combinatorics". Cambridge University Press. 2008. Free online edition: http://algo.inria.fr/flajolet/Publications/book.pdf
*Algebraic combinatorics:
-Christopher David Godsil. "Algebraic combinatorics". Chapman & Hall. 1993
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-Ezra MillerLowell W. Beineke, Bernd SturmfelsRobin J. Wilson. "Combinatorial commutative algebra"Topics In Algebraic Graph Theory". SpringerCambridge University Press. 20052004
*Geometric combinatorics:
-Ezra Miller, Victor Reiner, Bernd Sturmfels. "Geometric Combinatorics". AMS. 2007
*Topological combinatorics: -Jiří Matoušek. "Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem". Springer. 2003
*Combinatorics on words: -Jean Berstel, Juhani Karhumäki. "Combinatorics on words - a tutorial". http://www-igm.univ-mlv.fr/~berstel/Articles/2003TutorialCoWdec03.pdf
*Category-theoretic combinatorics: -François Bergeron, Gilbert Labelle, Pierre Leroux. "Combinatorial Species and Tree-like Structures". Cambridge University Press. 1998
*The C-finite Ansatz: -Doron Zeilberger. http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/mamarim/mamarimhtml/cfinite.html
*Model-theoretic combinatorics:
-Martin Grohe, Johann A. Makowsky. "Model Theoretic Methods in Finite Combinatorics". AMS. in preparation. Preface and contents2011
-Erich Grädel. "Finite model theory and its applications". Springer. 2007
Modern books on more classical areas of combinatorics:
*Enumerative combinatorics: -Richard P. Stanley. "Enumerative Combinatorics", Volumes 1 and 2. Cambridge University Press. 1997, 1999, online draft of 2nd Ed of vol 1 2012
*Probabilistic combinatorics: -Noga Alon, Joel H. Spencer. "The Probabilistic Method" 3rd ed. Wiley. 2008
*Extremal combinatorics:
-Béla Bollobás. "Extremal graph theory". Academic Press. 1978. (Dover 2004)
-Alexander Soifer. "Ramsey Theory: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". Springer. 2010
-Ian Anderson. "Combinatorics of Finite Sets", Dover reprint. 2002
-Konrad Engel. "Sperner Theory". Cambridge University Press. 1997
*Matroids: -Neil White. "Theory of Matroids". Cambridge University Press. 2008
*Designs: -Thomas Beth, Dieter Jungnickel, Hanfried Lenz. "Design theory", Volumes 1 and 2. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Finite algebra
For finite algebra and combinatorics together: -Warwick De Launey, Diane Flannery. "Algebraic Design Theory". AMS. 2011
Possible project: investigate how finite algebraic structures interact with other finite structures: search for finite geometries, finite metric spaces, finite topological spaces, finite dynamical systems.
*Finite groups:
-Michael Aschbacher. "Finite group theory". Cambridge University Press. 2000
-Roger William Carter. "Finite groups of Lie type: conjugacy classes and complex characters". Wiley. 1993
-Simon R. Blackburn, P. M. Neumann, Geetha Venkataraman. "Enumeration of finite groups". Cambridge University Press. 2007
-Tullio Ceccherini-Silberstein, Fabio Scarabotti, Filippo Tolli. "Harmonic analysis on finite groups". Cambridge University Press. 2008
-T. Tsuzuku, A. Sevenster, T. Okuyama. "Finite Groups and Finite Geometries". Cambridge University Press. 1982
-Mara D. Neusel, Larry Smith. "Invariant theory of finite groups". AMS. 2002
*Finite fields:
-Rudolf Lidl, Harald Niederreiter, Paul Moritz Cohn. "Finite fields". Cambridge University Press. 1997
-There are regular international conferences on finite fields and applications with proceedings published.
