What are your favorite textbooks?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

as everyone who's been to college knows, most college textbooks are basically unreadable and awful. probably the single worst one i ever ran across was this book i used for media communications which read like it was written by someone from mars or something. a section on the WB (!) was introduced by a summary of the plot of chuck jones's "one froggy evening," which was followed by a remark like "funny? not very."

as for books that were actually GOOD-good, i really like e. h. gombrich's "the story of art."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 21 May 2005 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything by David Crystal for English language. Pop-in-and-out-able.

― On one hand I've got myself to blame (Lynskey), Saturday, 21 May 2005 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

athenaze is the best language textbook i've ever used.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 21 May 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Steven Strogatz's Nonlinear dynamics and chaos was very readable, very much like his Pop Science book Sync, only with all the differential equations and such left intact.

The Structure and Interpretation Of Computer Programs is worthwhile and a lot of fun, if you can get past the awful puns.

― Rhodia (Rhodia), Saturday, 21 May 2005 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I love Athenaze!

I have only read Crystal's language & computers stuff - the style is dead good but he is wrong quite often, I think?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 21 May 2005 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

once i spent hundreds of dollars at the annual springer-verlag sale at my campus bookstore.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Structure and Interpretation... is excellent. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice is classic as well. These are the only two computer textbooks that I hold on to.

Oh I seem to recall Hennessy and Patterson Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach being really good too.

― mikef-who-mostly-lurks (mfleming), Sunday, 22 May 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch

― sgs (sgs), Sunday, 22 May 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Economics - Alain Anderson

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 22 May 2005 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Introduction to Montague Semantics by Dowty, Wall & Peters - meticulous and methodical; Syntactic Theory by Sag & Wasow (pre-publication copy) - highly readable and inductive; my high school European history textbook (I don't remember the author or title. It had a maroon cover. I'm tempted to call the school to find out because I'd like to brush up on European history and to see if it's as impressive as it was then.)

― youn, Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Cambridge Latin Course were good, too. Tricolour was awful, though.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The Yale book for Japanese Language (first year) or something. My professor was also a terrific teacher. Fuck, I miss him. Fuck cancer. :-(((((

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Sunday, 22 May 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

French in Action (yeah, and fuck cancer in language professors! boo)

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Sunday, 22 May 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ebookmall.com/ebookonline/images/lsi/s-image/0/0203146387.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 22 May 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

eh, lyas is ok i guess. a lot better than dickie & sclafani or hospers.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 23 May 2005 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I forget off the top of my head the name of my mechanics of Vibrations textbook from university but it was one of the clearest and best written textbooks i have ever experience, a rare thing in engineering textbooks which seem in the main to be pitched all wrong. It helped me to the highest mark in my class whilst studying in Italy.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 23 May 2005 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Cambridge Latin Course reprazent!

Was Athenaze the one with Dikaiopolis? we never got to use the full textbook. :( And yes yes Tricolore was the rubbish.

I have yet to find an economics textbook that doesn't make me want to to throw it against the wall and then rip it into little pieces and then burn it and then stamp on its smug little ashes. they all seem to adopt this horrible patronising tone...

― spontine (cis), Monday, 23 May 2005 07:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Athenaze was indeed Dikaiopolis and his tous bous.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 23 May 2005 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

heck I got so good at Maths in Primary school purely due to my obsession with wanting to get on the advanced 'red' text book whichlookedsoyummy!

― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 23 May 2005 07:40 (twenty-one years ago)

stokstads big art history survey book

― anthony, Monday, 23 May 2005 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

My favourite was a history GCSE textbook by someone called Philip (?) Sauvain. Whenever the teacher asked us to use the book the whole class would start singing "You're So Vain".

Least favourite: The ancient arithmetic books just filled with sums. Each left hand page was headed "First try these" and each right hand page, "Now try these".

― beanz (beanz), Monday, 23 May 2005 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.inmethodist.net/images/books/foundations-of-econ-analysis.jpg

― rasheed wallace (rasheed wallace), Monday, 23 May 2005 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.