Rating: 
Summary: Five stars are not enough!
Review: Read this book as a test: if you love it, you really love the beautiful science of Physics. Try to read it if you are an undergraduate. If you can't understand it yet, never mind. Just try again later. If love to Physics is what you feel, it will be a great day in your life when you start to understand something from Landau.
Rating: 
Summary: Beloved of many, but outdated
Review: Some professors prefer book this to Goldstein's because it stresses problem-solving over formalism. Like Goldstein, however, the problems are all of the integrable type and there is no training provided for analyzing nonintegrable (especially chaotic) dynamical systems. Worse, one does not learn what 'integability' is from this book because it is implicitly assumed that every problem is integrable. This error follows from failing to distinguish local from global integrability. If one may be excused for criticizing the Pope, the authors make wrong and completely misleading statements about integrability (see my review of Goldstein, and also ch. 16 of my book Classical Mechanics, Cambridge, 1997). The problems and examples are indeed more challenging than those in Goldstein, and are instructive, but the text makes no contact whatsoever with the ideas and methods of modern nonlinear dynamics, in spite of the fact that (as Poincare, Arnol'd and others have shown), most of classical mechanics IS nonlinear dynamics. In other words, a student learns little from this text that is useful for research in theoretical mechanics these days. In my newer text I develope Poincare's method of qualitative analysis, and then assign as homework problems many numerical problems where in addition the students are required to check the accuracy of forward integrations in time by integrating backward to try to recover the initial conditions to within at least one digit accuracy. My text was tested for several years teaching both physics and mechanical engineering students at the graduate level, and with success. Try my text, you may find that you like it, especially since it's readability compares more with that of Goldstein than with Arnol'd.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it CAN be used as a textbook!
Review: The fact that Landau's "Mechanics" is a classic physics text is universally acknowledged. But many physicists think that it isn't suitable as the sole textbook for a graduate course in classical mechanics. From my experience, using Landau several times to teach such a course, is that it makes an EXCELLENT textbook which is a joy to teach from. The one thing that it lacks is unworked exercises that may be assigned as homework. It's not difficult to create suitable exercises; I would be happy to share my collection (including solutions) with other instructors.
Rating:
Summary: Can these guys write anything thats not amazingly elegant???
Review: This book blew my mind when I first started to read it. Let me start by saying this may not be my first suggestion of a book to start with if you know nothing about classical mechanics. But once you know soemthing, then you can truly appreicate the beauty of the presentation in this book. Dont discredit the quality of this book just because its "soo thin". No matter how "thin" it is, it has just about everything you need to know about classical analytical mechanics. This book's approach is so highly unusual, and perhaps thats what makes it so special. It is a self contained treatment from simple mechanics, ending with a wonderful treatment of the Hamilton Jacobi equation. Also you find some things in here that you dont find anywhere else. Proof that mass is nonnegative, one of the most extensive sections on scattering and collisions. And I was particularly impressed by the small section on mechanical similarity. How many other treatments do you know that give you a simple and clear proof of Kepler's third law in about 2 lines? Im trying to learn Russian right now, and soon as I my proficienly is high enough, this book is very high on my "books to read in russian" list. All in all this book is a must have for every serious student of physics.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as Goldstein
Review: This book is a good classical mechanics text inasmuch as alot of physics is conveyed to the reader, for example the intoduction argument for the existance of the Lagrangian is very nice. However, alot of mathematical arguements in the book are based on too much physical intuition and too little rigor. I believe that applied mathematicians (not having the usual undergrad physics background) and anyone more interested in a rigorous treatment of classical mechanics would be better served by Goldsteins text.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Delightful: A Masterful Exposition
Review: This book(and very hotly contested by their Classical Theory of Fields) has to be the most gorgeous exposition on classical physics to be found. Crystal clear, yet concise and perfectly logical as is to be expected from all of Landau's works. The material is so beautifully developed that this is one of the few places where it is possible to see how each piece of the classical mechanics puzzle fits together. If not for the rest of the book, the sections on the Hamilton-Jacobi Equation, Maupertuis Principle and a small but absolutely incredible section on mechanical similarity are simply a must read. Goldstein(the general) standard suffers from several defects, notably logical inconsistency within the own text(A complaint that can never be made of any of Landau's books). Above all, This book is the perfect keystone to the remaining books of their series, and as such should be read before attempting any of the remaining volumes.Lastly regarding criticisms that this book does not tend itself to non-integrability and classical chaos I suppose these are justified statments, but considering that this book was never written with such goals in mind, the arguments are irrelevant. There are several excellent references available on such material(including a recently added section in Goldstein) which will satisfy people looking for such topics. But this volume should feature on the bookshelf of anyone that has any interest in classical mechanics and wishes to read the treatment of the subject by a master.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite mechanics book of all time
Review: This has got to be my favorite mechanics book of all time. It does not cover nonlinear mechanics or computational mechanics (two of my favorite research areas) but it is a beautiful and elegant treatment of classical dynamics which is what it was intended to be. Those who believe nonlinear dynamics should have been covered here or that the book is out of date are missing the point. Follow this book up with nonlinear dynamics and you will be dangerous. Not the most complete treatment of classical dynamics but a very beautiful one for those who love classical dynamics.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite mechanics book of all time
Review: This has got to be my favorite mechanics book of all time. It does not cover nonlinear mechanics or computational mechanics (two of my favorite research areas) but it is a beautiful and elegant treatment of classical dynamics which is what it was intended to be. Those who believe nonlinear dynamics should have been covered here or that the book is out of date are missing the point. Follow this book up with nonlinear dynamics and you will be dangerous. Not the most complete treatment of classical dynamics but a very beautiful one for those who love classical dynamics.
Rating:
Summary: Your baptism as a physicist
Review: This is the first volume in the famous course on theoretical physics. The writing is concise and clear. This is how real physicists do mechanics.
There are other mechanics books to choose from. Maybe my second choice would be Goldstein's. But this one is the best.
Start with the first chapter. In ten pages you'll learn about the Principle of Least Action, Lagrangians, and Lagrange's Equations. Then do the four exercises at the end of the chapter. Find those Lagrangians! If you want to be adventurous, plug them back into Lagrange's equations and find the equations of motion. You'll feel as though you've acquired magical power. And the rest of the book is like that, too.
Once you've taken calculus, you'll be ready for this. And it's definitely the way to start learning physics. Try it.
Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC BOOK ON MECHANICS
Review: This is the Volume 1 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 1 treats the subject of classical mechanics in an elegant and logically correct way. The autors avoid tautological definitions of the basic mechanical quantities, taking as the starting point the Hamilton's principle of least action and Galileo's relativity principle. This book is indicated to all those who have some aqquaintance with mechanics and have the desire of solidify the knowledge of this important branch of theoretical physics. A classic!
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