One thing you can make which is very fast is unleavened flatbread. For example, chapati and roti are two Indian flatbreads made without yeast. If you try one of these though, I'd recommend getting a special flour to get the authentic flavor. They come out kind of bitter with regular whole wheat flour. Chapati or Atta flour can be found at Indian grocers, or order online. King Arthur Flour makes a version which I haven't tried, but generally their products are very good - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/chakki-atta-indian-flour-3-lb
Chapati and roti are pretty similar to wheat tortillas, although tortillas are usually a bit thinner. These can also be considered a flatbread and can be made quickly.
If you want to try no-knead bread you don't need a book. Mark Bittman of the NY Times has posted some no-knead recipes online (from Jim Lahey of Sullivan St Bakery in NY, who now has his own book of no-knead recipes).
Overnight rise recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Newer "quick" version, 4-5 hour rise: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08mini.html
You can also make pita bread with an hour and a half rise.
The reason for doing delayed fermentation in the fridge is that the yeast development is slowed down, while still allowing the enzymes that naturally occur in the flour to do their work (converting starches to sugars, making a more flavorful dough).
The risk of doing it on the counter instead of the fridge is that the enzymes are working AND the yeast is working, which can over-leaven the bread, and they'll eat up the sugars you are trying to create with enzymes. Over-leavened bread isn't ideal, but it isn't the end of the world either. There is a lot to learn about bread baking if you want to really excel at it, but "just bake it, it'll be fine" is always present as you experiment - glad the loaf turned out well!
"No-Knead" bread is a great introduction to "rustic" doughs (very high water content), and to cold fermentation. Cold fermentation is about the best thing you can do for your bread as a home baker, whether or not you are using the no-knead recipe - I cold ferment nearly everything I bake.
If you want to learn more about the process and jump off the deep end, Peter Reinhart's book "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" is a great place to start. It is detailed without being pedantic, simple without being over-simplified, and oriented for the home baker without forgetting the reasons that professionals do things the way they do.
Best Answer
A cold/delayed ferment does several things:
The first two items are lumped into the term autolyse, which can be done in time frames of anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours.
The third item of a cold ferment gets more complex... Additional enzymes (alpha-amylase enzymes) that come along with the flour, yeast, other ingredients added to the flour (malt powders), or grain mashes, perform a set of reactions that break starch molecules into sugars. This reaction is what turns malted grain from starchy soup to sweet liquid in the beer-making process of "mashing". These sugars both add flavor of their own, caramelize to create new flavors, and feed the yeast creating even NEW flavors.
The trick, and reason it is cold, is that the yeast contribute valuable enzymes to this process, but can be too energetic. If they are allowed to ferment wildly they would likely over-leaven the bread. The cool temperatures slow the enzymes down as well, but not as much as the yeast, letting the enzymes catch up with the process.
Now - no part of this process is dogma. There are people who cold-rest their dough and THEN add yeast the next day. Problem here is that you need to allow at least 6 hours at room temperature for the yeast to catch up, and it is hard to integrate yeast into pre-made dough. The results can be similar, but the scheduling is awkward. Other variations include cold resting only part of the dough, or making a liquid "soaker" that includes some mashed grain, allowing that to sit at room temperature without yeast, which is then integrated into the main dough on the day of baking.
Cold-resting dough is also a practical matter - once the dough is mixed and resting, if it spends 12 or 36 hours in the fridge, it doesn't matter too much, and once it is pulled out, only requires a few hours to come back to temperature, final proof, and bake. It sounds like a slower way to make bread, but personally, splitting the process into two days makes it easier to fit into a busy life - I start the dough on one day, then the next day (or two or three days later, if I get busy), I can pull the dough after work, proof and bake for a late dinner that evening. The flavor and dough development are icing on the cake.
To really dive into this process and what drives it, check out Peter Reinhart's books "Bread Baker's Apprentice" and "Whole Grain Breads", both of which go into the process in great detail, and are excellent reads for anyone wanting to improve their baking. It includes a lot of the science, and enough background information to make you feel comfortable with what you are doing, and comfortable experimenting on your own with variations to the process.