A very good textbook on Microbiology at the 200-300 college level. The chapter on DNA Replication and Protein Synthesis is especially well-written and presents a complex process in an easily-comprehensible, keenly-illustrated, and methodical manner. The chapter (and a couple others) are actually better than similar chapters in a Human Anatomy & Physiology textbook to which I awarded 5 stars earlier this year. The information in a book like this is so informative that I wish more people read textbooks about subjects they're unfamiliar with, and read them as seriously and closely as they would a favorite novel.
Instead of buying the newly published (and course-required) 10th edition textbook for $179.99, I searched on Amazon and got the International Student Edition for $60.00, including tax. It was made in Cambodia, was a soft cover, and had different cover pictures; however it arrived in 3 days and was a very professional copy that stood up to my repeated abuse. I planned to keep the textbook for reference, and since I would've received less than $60 for selling it used, the International Edition was a victory.
I award 4-stars only because of one consistent pet peeve. There were too many references in early chapters to subsequent chapters, appendicies, tables, pictures, and charts. Too many times the text said, "discussed in chapter XX," "see page XX," "for more info see Appendix XX," "see additional table in following chapter," "...which will be covered later," etc. It occurred so often in the early chapter that it was distracting. It occurred less in the later chapters, but they did refer to previous chapters.
While technically adding a textbook to Goodreads is bad form... I definitely read this entire book for my Microbiology class. I thought it was an excellent book to use for students in nursing school as it didn't go into TOO much detail but was detailed enough I actually learned something.
This was a well organized textbook that was not difficult to read. Sometimes, the text would go from painfully obvious generalization in one paragraph to minute frivolous detail in the next. This was often frustrating, as the tests and learning objectives in the class for which I read this book tended to be more specific than the former an more general than the latter. I suppose this could be a review for the class overall, given the extensive overlap between the learning objectives for the class and the questions given at the beginning of each chapter and subject. Textbook conventions were used well. If there was a new word or concept, it was bold and the definition followed. Further, the most important concepts were always the first sentence in the section. This made the text easy to skim or quickly glean answers to learning objectives.
Unfortunately I am very unlikely to ever thumb through this book again, as it is on looseleaf paper in a binder, with no bound version offered at my campus bookstore. This is disgraceful. I would have happily traded in the full color photos for a binding and hardcover. The book was still outrageously expensive, AND IT WASN'T EVEN BOUND!
Normally, I would never add a textbook to my "goodreads" list but I'll make an exception for this. This book is well written, visually detailed, and easy to understand. The concepts in this text follow me throughout my educational career.
Everything you needed to know about the basics of microbiology was in this book. It's well laid out, succinct and the information was conveyed clearly. If you need to quickly learn about microbiology in a short period of time, then this is your book of choice.
There's a boatload of good information in this book but at some point it degenerates into a sort of glossary of microbes instead of anything that I could read and hope to retain.
Straightforward and has tons of great illustrations which often aided me in understanding more complex concepts. I'm confused that there are so many whiny reviews of this book about how it made "everything" seem gross and ruined their lives. It's actually pretty awesome for a textbook and one of the better ones available on the subject. Shut up and learn to study. The book does go into more detail than necessary for some people's college programs at the molecular level but these types of books are written for a range of audiences at different levels of academia. It also does an excellent job of explaining that most microbes are NOT harmful--the harmful ones are the exceptions. Info is clear and up to date.
I suppose this was as engrossing as a microbio textbook could be.
On the plus side, I finally found a book about the subject that didn't condescend to me. It had gross photos of disease signs and microbes, and beautiful images from electron microscopes.
And for the bad: this book hates anyone who isn't completely germ-phobic. Namely, it hates people who have sex and do drugs, and it does a fine job of attempting to scare people out of those activities.
I'm so glad I can read something besides this book for once. The last four months of my life have been consumed by this thing. Now it's over. Ahhhhh.
Textbook. Has the necessary information. What more can you ask?
Well, I would've preferred more concision at times, with more itemized paragraphs in place of the sometimes excessively detailed descriptions, or just brief paragraphs to supplement the figures and tables. Particularly in this sort of field; in many cases one shouldn't need to wade through the mire to find relevant diagnostic criteria, etiology/epidemiology and treatments, etc.
I personally think this textbook is quite straight forward - wonderful illustrations, descriptions. There could be more information in both the glossary and the index, you can generally find what you need in a pinch. Although I am excited to be done with this class, I am also grateful to have access to a book that is a better teacher than my actual (human) teacher.
I am reading this book for a Microbiology class I am taking. It is very intense and technical...LOL. I sometimes have to read over pages several times to understand it!!! It is definitely a text book and not easy reading!!
I find myself looking things up in this text book months after my Microbiology class wrapped up. It has some great pictures and contains great information on microbiology. My children love looking at this text as well....they are intrigued by the photos of funky skin diseases caused by microbes.
I went into this book/class with a lot of interest in the subject. They sure took care of that! Wish I had kept this text. The full-color photos are amazing and the information was... well, there was a lot of it.
dan memang, mikroskop yang dipakai dan cara menampilkan morfologi mikroba ke dalam bukunya bikin "ngiler" aja. Pengenalan ilmu yang emang bener-bener lengkap (untuk intro) dan pembagian bab dalam buku masih kebayang untuk punya buku fisiknya (one day).
Woohoo, I am soooo done!!! This book was obviously for my Microbiology class. Nonetheless, it was fun to read and very informative(especially for the tests, haha.)