Rating: 
Summary: Classic?
Review: This book is considered required reading for every acupuncture student and is often recommended for patients who are interested in learning more about the medicine. I find it too difficult for the layman. and the text becomes laborious. Exploring the wonders of Chinese medicine should be exciting and enjoyable. There are many books which fulfill this with excellent illustrations. As students we found the book less than helpful and few ever finished reading this tome. As a practitioner, it sits on my shelf, but I have never referred to it.My recommendations for the beginner in these studies are: 1. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicine by Tom Williams Great pictures, easy to read. Have it my waiting room. Most read by my patients (next to the Chinese astrology books). 2. The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness by Mischa Cohen, LAc Mischa presents the medicine clearly and has easy to follow suggestions for self care. 3. Healing With Whole Foods, Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitcford Integrates Oriental and Western nutritional knowledge. Excellent resource for layperson and practitioner alike. 4. ANYTHING by Giovanni Maciocia or Dan Bensky 5. A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman and Mazin Al-Khafaji As a professor of acupuncture, I have found this textbook to be one of the best attempts to integrate all of the translated material and organize it into a very readable reference. Excellent, invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike.
Rating:
Summary: Classic?
Review: This book is considered required reading for every acupuncture student and is often recommended for patients who are interested in learning more about the medicine. I find it too difficult for the layman. and the text becomes laborious. Exploring the wonders of Chinese medicine should be exciting and enjoyable. There are many books which fulfill this with excellent illustrations. As students we found the book less than helpful and few ever finished reading this tome. As a practitioner, it sits on my shelf, but I have never referred to it. My recommendations for the beginner in these studies are: 1. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicine by Tom Williams Great pictures, easy to read. Have it my waiting room. Most read by my patients (next to the Chinese astrology books). 2. The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness by Mischa Cohen, LAc Mischa presents the medicine clearly and has easy to follow suggestions for self care. 3. Healing With Whole Foods, Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitcford Integrates Oriental and Western nutritional knowledge. Excellent resource for layperson and practitioner alike. 4. ANYTHING by Giovanni Maciocia or Dan Bensky 5. A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman and Mazin Al-Khafaji As a professor of acupuncture, I have found this textbook to be one of the best attempts to integrate all of the translated material and organize it into a very readable reference. Excellent, invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Acupuncture 101
Review: This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine. The average lay person may find more information here than they need at first but better that than a dumbed-down, less comprehensive book which will leave them nothing to turn to if/when they eventually decide they want more information. And unlike some Chinese medical books where 'facts' are produced seemingly from thin air, each of Kaptchuk's chapters is followed by an extensive section of notes/references. The Web was one of the first books on Chinese medicine published in English for the layman and despite its limitations, I feel it is still one of the best. I am a practicing acupuncturist/herbalist and I recommend this book to my patients. It isn't perfect - sometimes there's too much detail, the illustrations could be clearer, could have included more info about herbs, etc. But to Kaptchuk's credit, some sections of this book are written with a beautiful simplicity unmatched by anything I've seen written since, e.g. when he compares the way Chinese painters represented the natural elements in their landscapes to the "poetic logic" a Chinese physician employs when evaluating a patient. It is no small task to sum up traditional Chinese medicine in a single volume but Kaptchuk has done an admirable job.
Rating:
Summary: Acupuncture 101
Review: This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine. The average lay person may find more information here than they need at first but better that than a dumbed-down, less comprehensive book which will leave them nothing to turn to if/when they eventually decide they want more information. And unlike some Chinese medical books where 'facts' are produced seemingly from thin air, each of Kaptchuk's chapters is followed by an extensive section of notes/references. The Web was one of the first books on Chinese medicine published in English for the layman and despite its limitations, I feel it is still one of the best. I am a practicing acupuncturist/herbalist and I recommend this book to my patients. It isn't perfect - sometimes there's too much detail, the illustrations could be clearer, could have included more info about herbs, etc. But to Kaptchuk's credit, some sections of this book are written with a beautiful simplicity unmatched by anything I've seen written since, e.g. when he compares the way Chinese painters represented the natural elements in their landscapes to the "poetic logic" a Chinese physician employs when evaluating a patient. It is no small task to sum up traditional Chinese medicine in a single volume but Kaptchuk has done an admirable job.
Rating: 
Summary: For those studying for the California State Board...
Review: This is a classic book for acupuncture in the U.S. In many places, it uses specific different terminology from other books. The appendixes contain a large amount of info on diagnosis and pattern differentiation. I had to pull out the patterns with unfamiliar names like "heat poison in the Liver and Gallbladder" to make sure I wasn't stumped on the test. Apart from the appendixes, however, the rest of the info is covered in other books or is too philosophical or speculative to be tested. It's not a bad first book for those new to chinese medicine, but it assumes you want to know a lot... and you may not!
Rating:
Summary: More Technical than you may want, but an eye-opening classic
Review: This text is often refered to as the classic introduction to Chinese Medicine Theory. Because I am not a practitioner of Chinese medicine--or of Biomedicine--I cannot comment on its accuracy of portraying its subject matter. (I have heard that various texts abound with differing interpretations.) I can say that the book is known as a classic, and it is HIGHLY DETAILED. It illustrates very well how Chinese Medicine is completely different from the view of health we are used to in "The West". For example, instead of diagnosing someone with cancer, or arrhythmia, or bronchitis, a diagnosis sounds something like dampness affecting the Spleen, Deficitent Kidney Yang, Congealed Blood, etc... (These are not respective equivalents for the western diagnoses cancer, et al.) And Blood, Kidney, Spleen, Spirit, and a host of other terms that look familiar to our eyes take on larger meanings than we are used to. What I liked best was the chapters on Meridians and on Organs, showing the organization of energy and systems of the human body. Other later chapters got extremely detailed. While this was more than I wanted, it was fine, I just skimmed them without trying to memorize or really remember too much. Just get a basic sense of how there is a completely different approach to health and illness, which showed me that different possibilities and viewpoints always exist. I definitely enjoyed the book despite being more technical than I wanted. It opened my eyes. (I am a massage therapist with just a pinch of training in "5 Element Theory" and Shiatsu, which is accupressure.)
Rating:
Summary: More Technical than you may want, but an eye-opening classic
Review: This text is often refered to as the classic introduction to Chinese Medicine Theory. Because I am not a practitioner of Chinese medicine--or of Biomedicine--I cannot comment on its accuracy of portraying its subject matter. (I have heard that various texts abound with differing interpretations.) I can say that the book is known as a classic, and it is HIGHLY DETAILED. It illustrates very well how Chinese Medicine is completely different from the view of health we are used to in "The West". For example, instead of diagnosing someone with cancer, or arrhythmia, or bronchitis, a diagnosis sounds something like dampness affecting the Spleen, Deficitent Kidney Yang, Congealed Blood, etc... (These are not respective equivalents for the western diagnoses cancer, et al.) And Blood, Kidney, Spleen, Spirit, and a host of other terms that look familiar to our eyes take on larger meanings than we are used to. What I liked best was the chapters on Meridians and on Organs, showing the organization of energy and systems of the human body. Other later chapters got extremely detailed. While this was more than I wanted, it was fine, I just skimmed them without trying to memorize or really remember too much. Just get a basic sense of how there is a completely different approach to health and illness, which showed me that different possibilities and viewpoints always exist. I definitely enjoyed the book despite being more technical than I wanted. It opened my eyes. (I am a massage therapist with just a pinch of training in "5 Element Theory" and Shiatsu, which is accupressure.)
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