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Keywords: Biochemistry, biology, chemistry Title: Biochemistry For Dummies Author: John Moore and Richard Langley Publisher: Wiley ISBN: 0470194286 Media: Book Level: Introductory Verdict: Avoid until there's an edition without the mistakes

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This may be the shortest review in the history of TechBookReport and really it could be summed up with the advice to ignore this book until a new edition comes out. This edition is so riddled with errors that it's impossible for a beginner to make sense of the content. For example the reaction equations throughout the text are missing the arrows - you have to guess where they are by looking at the gaps between terms. The text mentions the double arrows often enough, so you know they ought to be in there somewhere… But these aren't the only errors, there are others scattered through the text. It destroys any trust you might have in the content. What's worse is that the publishers haven't bothered to put corrections on a web page where we can at least check out what the text is supposed to say.

Lots of books have typos and the occasional mistake, but such fundamental errors are unforgiveable. Where was the quality control? What kind of proofing process is in place? It just doesn't make sense that nobody noticed that all of the equations were lacking. The publishers have done the two authors a grave disservice. It's hard to say how good the content is because of it.

So, until there's a new edition with these errors corrected this is a book to avoid at all costs.