Principles of Polymer Systems

Rating:
Summary: Not as useful as other introductory texts!
Review: The book is perhaps not as useful as the introductory text by LH Sperling or Painter & Coleman, and for that matter even by Kumar & Gupta or Billmeyer or Fried. The fifth edition has updated a lot of material in say topic on viscous flow (which is welcome), but still this text comes out as less useful as introductory reading, and definitely not meant for advanced readers!!

Why is this book not that useful? Read it and compare it to any other books that I list here. Billmeyer excels as the first book, short yet exhaustive in content. Sperling satisfies the need of being a good text on physical polymer science or physical chemistry of polymers. Odian is by far the best text on polymer chemistry, and Doi or Strobl or Colby/Rubinstein are written for polymer physicists, and each is exceptional in content. This book, on the other hand, is quite outdated and banal in spite of regular revisions!