Best Undergraduate Textbooks

[chesmo12]

As an undergraduate I sold all of my chemistry textbooks after my classes ended for some reason, not thinking that I would actually find them useful in the long run. Now that I'm gearing up for grad school I would like to start reviewing for the placement exams many schools require incoming students to take. What are your favorite inorganic/organic/physical chem textbooks you used in undergrad?

 

How much of a difference does the edition make? For example, the Miessler Inorganic 5th edition (2013) is $95 used on Amazon but I found the 2nd edition (1998) for $20. How much would I miss out on by buying an almost 20 year old textbook?

[doyouevenchop]

Paula Bruice's Organic Chemistry (I have 6th edition) is one of my favorite textbooks. Easy to read, helpful practice problems, and you should be able to scoop it up pretty cheap on amazon

[Eigen]

I liked Levine for PChem in undergrad, but McQuarrie has excellent books as well. Levine's QM is definitely less understandable (although probably more complete) than McQuarrie. 

 

I never really found inorganic/organic texts I liked, Smith is OK, as is Brown & Foote. Depending on your focus, I'd say pick up March's Advanced Organic, as it's a great book to keep on your shelf. I've taught out of a number of sophomore organic texts, and they all have a huge ratio of useless:useful information, formatted with pretty boxes and not a lot of meat. I feel the same way about most Gen Chem texts. 

[Chai_latte]

I like Organic Chemistry by Clayden, Physical Chemistry by Castellan and Inorganic by Housecroft or/and Atkins.  With the exception of the inorganic books, I sought out the others on my own (they were never required texts).

 

Honestly, the older editions are fine for placement tests.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Chai_latte

[eeee1923]

My favorite chem books (I own the editions listed so if they've been updated I would assume there aren't too many differences):

 

Organic Chemistry:

 - Leroy Wade (7th & 8th Editions) - One of the best intro level o-chem books I've ever read (I still referenced it when I took my advanced and synthetic o-chem classes)

 - John McCurry (7th Edition) - Good reference

 

Biochemistry:

 - Lehninger (Nelson & Cox), 5th & 6th Editions - Classics, awesome and very well written

 

Physical Chemistry:

 - Atkins (8th Edition) - generally ok reference

 - Levine (6th Edition) - good

 

Quantum:

 - Lowe (3rd Edition) - I found it to be helpful but I found it hard to track down really good quantum books

 

Inorganic Chemistry:

 - Miesslerr (3rd Edition) - I found it to be ok but with the same limitations as the quantum books

[mterabithia]

I liked Levine for PChem in undergrad, but McQuarrie has excellent books as well. Levine's QM is definitely less understandable (although probably more complete) than McQuarrie. 

 

I never really found inorganic/organic texts I liked, Smith is OK, as is Brown & Foote. Depending on your focus, I'd say pick up March's Advanced Organic, as it's a great book to keep on your shelf. I've taught out of a number of sophomore organic texts, and they all have a huge ratio of useless:useful information, formatted with pretty boxes and not a lot of meat. I feel the same way about most Gen Chem texts. 

When it comes to QM, I believe peter atkins physical chemistry will be more reader friendly.

[Eigen]

I'm not a fan of Atkins over either Levine or McQuarrie, personally.

[MaudDib]

I'm just a first-year, and there are definitely more experienced people here, but here are my impressions:

 

I really liked McQuarrie's physical chemistry book. The math review chapters are great, especially for a math dummy like me. Plus, it's really well written, and it's actually readable. I didn't like Laidler and Meiser. It seemed like they deliberately wrote it to be boring and difficult to understand. I haven't ever used or read Atkins, but I have heard that it's huge.

 

I used both Wade and Bruice sophomore organic texts during undergrad, and I still own both of them. I *definitely* prefer Wade over Bruice. IIRC, Bruice is somewhat more comprehensive, although I can't remember specifically what wasn't present in Wade.

 

I haven't found a Biochem book that I didn't like. Voet & Voet is especially good. Haven't used Lehninger.

 

I liked the Atkins inorganic book, but my friends and labmates generally did not. Atkins is kind of lacking in its coverage of group theory. The Huheey book is better in that area. My labmates really like the Meissler book, but I've never read it.

 

If I was re-buying everything, I'd get: McQuarrie for physical chemistry; Voet & Voet for biochem; Wade for organic; and Atkins for inorganic.

Edited March 18, 2015 by MaudDib

[Faraday]

Atkins' books are not very good in my opinion. That's what I used for my Pchem class and I just ended up buying McQuarrie because Atkins was so bad. I should point out that I'm also not a math person and I still felt McQuarrie's book to be the best. The math chapters are really helpful for making sure you understand the relevant mathamatics. As someone above said, it's also quite readable.

 

For general chemistry I initially learned from Zumdahl, but I've found Brown to be the best book that I've come across.

 

For organic chemistry the only book I've ever used was Solomons, and I really enjoyed it. It was really readable for me and it goes into a lot of depth and a good number of details on subject without getting too complicated. As such it's probably a bit longer than most organic books.

 

Berg is my favorite for Biochem. It is very comprehensuve yet not too cumbersome (I'm looking at you Lehninger). I've heard good things about Voet but I haven't used it myself.

 

Almost all analytical books are pretty bad. Harris is the only one that's not bad.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Faraday