Biochemistry

Rating:
Summary: Big picture lost in the details
Review: At some places The Book is frustratingly superficial, and Index is a disappointment at times. But clearly written, good illustrations, overall impression is good.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Biochem Text
Review: I am a 2nd year medical student and last year I had to use this book for my medical biochem class...it stunk! I found the book to be utterly boring, and in the second term I didn't even read the book anymore, I just concentrated on my NMS (Thats the best review book for clinical biochem, in my opinion) and on my in-class notes, and not only did I ace the class, but I got 90 on the national miniboard examination, where the national average was a mere 70. If you want a great biochem book, look elsewhere...its not here.

Rating:
Summary: A very deatail oriented text
Review: I started reading Voet and Voet a few months ago, in preparation for a transition into computational biology that I'll make making soon. The book is quite detailed, which is useful to me as a researcher, because it lets me get up to speed on the current state of biochemical knowledge without having to read too many papers first. As a class textbook, however, I can understand why it might not be an optimal choice. The level of detail can be overwhelming, and obscures the big picture. In my case, I'm looking to study specific biochemical structures and systems, so the more detail provided, the better.

Rating:
Summary: The very best biochemistry textbook out there
Review: I've used the 1st edition of this textbook during my undergraduate days as a B.A. in biology (but concentrating in molecular biology and biochemistry), and then I used the 2nd edition during medical school and my fellowship in biophysical chemistry. If you are in the medical sciences, biochemistry, biophysics, physical chemistry, and even organic chemistry, this is the "must-have" book for you. It contains a more detailed explanation of the topic than typical undergraduate textbooks, but it still has excellent coherence and clarity to each and every topic despite the amount of information. I feel this book satisfies even the most "physical sciences" minded of us. I'm still waiting for the 3rd edition!

Rating:
Summary: A very deatail oriented text
Review: My biochem class "officially" uses the Lehninger textbook, but my professor also uses the voet&voet as a reference. I'll say the Lehninger book is good to read as intro, but if you really want to learn the details you've to use this book instead. I think not a single biochemistry book out there is good enough for every aspects, but i'll highly recommend using the voet text along with another one so they can fill each other's holes.

Rating:
Summary: hard to follow
Review: My biochemistry professor at the University of Colorado warned us not to read this book, even though it was the assigned text book! He warned us that it is very confusing. Although the book contains a lot of information, it can be hard to follow. For this reason, I don't feel that it is the best choice for an undergraduate class.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Biochemistry text on the market
Review: This book covers much of the same material as Stryer with about twice the detail and vastly better illustrations. V&V's massive advantage is a detailed methods chapter that lets you understand how the advances in biology have been made, and why science is so slow and frustrating. If you're serious about understanding biological chemistry (as distinct from understanding how the cell works, in which case you'll want a book on molecular cell biology), look no further than this. The third edition will be coming out in 2002, at about the same time as the sixth edition of Stryer. Expect V&V to be more up-to-date, better illustrated and less verbose than its competition (although obviously I haven't seen either yet). If you're a medical student, try Devlin's Biochemistry with clinical correlations. If you want an integrated cell biology/biochemistry text, try Garrett and Grisham, including part 5.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Biochemistry text on the market
Review: This book covers much of the same material as Stryer with about twice the detail and vastly better illustrations. V&V's massive advantage is a detailed methods chapter that lets you understand how the advances in biology have been made, and why science is so slow and frustrating. If you're serious about understanding biological chemistry (as distinct from understanding how the cell works, in which case you'll want a book on molecular cell biology), look no further than this. The third edition will be coming out in 2002, at about the same time as the sixth edition of Stryer. Expect V&V to be more up-to-date, better illustrated and less verbose than its competition (although obviously I haven't seen either yet). If you're a medical student, try Devlin's Biochemistry with clinical correlations. If you want an integrated cell biology/biochemistry text, try Garrett and Grisham, including part 5.

Rating:
Summary: Voet and Voet Biochemistry
Review: This book is complete garbage, especially considering the price. Explanations of relatively simple ideas are often made unnecessarily complicated. A good deal of the writing is unnecessarily flowery, and sentence structure is quite often more complex than is necessary or desireable for a book of this sort. I wasted an enormous amount of time rereading sections that turned out to be extremely confusing ways of explaining relatively uncomplicated concepts. In my view, potentially confusing scientific concepts should be explained in the simplest possible way. There's enough substance in the actual material that decorative language is definitely not necessary. For the price, I would have expected better editing as well, quite a few noticeable typos (3rd edition Vol. 1). I haven't read any biochem textbooks besides this one, but I'd recommend avoiding this one at all costs.