Good Biology Textbooks?

Question

Ok, so It recently dawned on me that I have never taken a real biology class and considering I'm a graduate student, that's kinda sad. I took an anthropology class to fulfill the requirement when I was an undergrad, and to be honest I don't know how I pulled off refusing to take it in high school.

Anyhoo, I was wondering if there are any good introductory textbooks you might be able to recommend. I'm mostly looking for a basic understanding of how life works I guess and I really don't care about phylogenetic classification systems or anything like that. I'm also pretty hugely into math, so if there are any mathematical biology textbooks that can serve as an introduction to the discipline, that would be cool too.

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

Those Barron's, Kaplan or Princeton Review books are the best. You can get an AP Biology/SAT Biology Review book from any of those and it'll give a good start to understanding biology (I know you're not taking AP or SAT but those books are good for learning by yourself without having taken the class. Just check it out!!)

Answer 2

THE biology textbook is Campbell & Reece Biology, whatever the latest edition happens to be (it's eighth as of 2008).

Go to Amazon and search with these keywords:

Campbell Reece Biology

My only beefs with it is that it's too heavy to curl up with in bed, and it's too big to read in the three weeks that the South Pasadena library will let me check it out for.  Ah well.

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If you're already familiar with biology and just want a review, then get

Cliff's Quickreview Biology

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Whatever you do, do NOT get Complete Idiot's Guide to Life Science.  It was written by someone who was careless and edited by someone who wasn't a scientist.  The biologist credited with helping must have been in a deep coma.  The book is worse than worthless.

Answer 3

Being a to-be new grade 12 bio teacher I'm constantly looking for the ideal biology book. For the body I have found none better than "The Human Body Book an Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function, and Disorders." By Steve Parker.

to sum it up, this book is amazing. The illustrations are phenomenal and it goes into quite a bit of detail while still keeping it very understandable

HIGHLY recommended.

http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/nf...