Essential Cell Biology

I bought this book a year ago for my eukaryotic cell structure and function class and I have got to say, this is one of the best textbooks I have ever encountered. The descriptions are clear and concise and the book as a whole is INTERESTING! Which is saying something. I actually enjoyed reading this book.The following semester I took Biochemistry and found myself referring back to this book before exams instead of my actual biochem book. The pictures are extremely helpful in helping you understand and remember what is really going on and the book itself is pleasant to look at.I'm taking the MCAT this spring and I'm definitely going to be using this book as a study aid as it has proved itself to be a wonderful resource not only for microbiology but also biochemistry and genetics.

I was desperately looking for a textbook to cover the Biochemistry and Cell Biology for the GRE Subject Test i am preparing for.Everyone was praising Alberts' Cell Biology but i found the information a bit advanced.Cell Biology is a FANTASTIC textbook but it requires prior background on Cell Biology to fully appreciate it and i had none.Then i found Essential Cell Biology. By the same author, it partners with others in bringing Cell Biology to a wider audience. Reading it is a breeze, it makes you wonder why Cell Biology is considered such a hard topic!Explanations are straight forward and the movies that come with the DVD are a life saver.You can easily read and assimilate 10 pages an hour and you don't even know when the time passes.The only chapters that require more time are "How cells obtain energy from food" and "Electron transport in mitochondria". But this is because of the chemical reactions implied by processes such as citric acid and glycolysis.Don't get fooled! Essential Cell Biology covers ALL chapters that his big brother Cell Biology includes. It only does it in a simpler and wiser manner.If you want to get acquainted with Cell Biology this is the book for you!

I used this older edition for my class that required the latest edition and I was perfectly fine. The information and images are basically the same- there is some differences in wording and order that the info is presented but overall it is the same as the latest edition. Also my professor used many of the images directly from the text on our exams and all of the ones that he used in the new edition were the same. Def. recommend getting this version- it will save you money and you will get the same as if you used the newer edition.

Informative

I first fell in love with the color and amazing graphics/ figures in this book. It's very inspiring to read compared to other dull and boring books. Many people that are not fans of biology might think, this is same as other book; however, the CD in the book has tons of helpful materials. It has review questions for the chapters, videos and pictures for pathways (glycolysis & Kreb cycle) & other hard to understand concepts. Trust me, some of the YouTube videos on things like DNA replication that people watch are right from this book. Most of all, this books has really picked my interest in biochemistry. Presently, I am using this book for another course (Molecular Biology). If I can get an A+ in Cell Biology with the helpful videos, you can!

The class I am taking supposedly requires the fourth edition of this book (according to our school bookstore website, that is). However, my professor told the class that the third and fourth editions are pretty much the same aside from some things like page and section numbering, and that we would be able to use either one for the class. If you are looking to save some money and still have basically the same book, then I would highly recommend this one. As far as how the book reads, it seems pretty good for a textbook. It isn't exactly fun to read, but it's relatively easy to follow and there are a lot of good pictures and diagrams. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and would definitely recommend this book.

I originally wrote that I was very happy with my purchase but I did not notice all of the writing inside the book at the time. Although I do not mind a little underlining and writing, this book has a significant amount throughout the book but the seller said it was a "clean copy." I'm not sure if that statement was misleading or if I simply didn't understand that "clean copy" did not refer to the inner pages of the book...either way, it would have been nice to know that I was purchasing a copy with writing inside of it.

This is the best undergrad textbook I've ever read. It's a pleasure to read (and Cell Bio is not exactly my favorite course) and all of the sections I was assigned to read explained their topics very well. I don't think I will even sell it back to the bookstore when the semester is over. They also put all of the answers in the back of the book. Some textbooks don't, which I hate. The DVD that comes with the txtbk is OK. It has movie clips that are OK and end of chapter quizzes that are helpful for studying but you can't paste any of the info into a word processer to review later or incorporate into flash cards.