Customer Reviews

Biochemistry (Chapters 1-34)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A disorganized muddle of clinical correlations, chemical mechanisms, and pathways, the text attempts to destroy an otherwise beautiful topic. It is difficult to extract the main pts and organize the information into a coherent fashion. But fortunately there are other texts, and a map showing how all the pathways converge and a table w/enzymes organized by mechanism w/cofactor, rxn info will be golden. With books like Lippincott's Reviews and Voet&Voet, youll be biochemistry's biggest fan in no time.

As with any intro text, this book tries to reach the largest audience possible. The problem is that it has deficiencies in many areas. The initial sections on DNA are short, completely avoiding any detailed mechanisms about DNA replication or transcription, putting those with a background that is stronger in chemistry at a disadvantage. When it comes to proteins, the book seems to have no trouble giving detailed mechanisms but the mechanisms are often obscure and poorly labeled (notably in serine proteases and metal-ion catalysis) making the information more difficult for those stronger in regular biology. Perhaps the worst part is that this book, which was chosen for my professor based on its integrated web courseware, has a website that is often unresponsive and seems to only work on old versions of Netscape. Nonetheless, I still keep a copy on my bookshelf for reference since the sections on proteins (notwithstanding the diagrams) are actually pretty good. All in all, an okay text and decent reference but certainly not for someone looking to pursue a career in biochemistry, molecular biology, or medicine. If you have a choice, the new Lehninger 4th edition is way better.

Finally, an introductory biochemistry text with a decent amount of chemistry in it! After seeing most biochemistry texts slowly turn into boring biology tomes over the past decade or more, it is heartening to see the latest edition of Stryer's Biochemistry. Jeremy Berg has done an excellent job of bringing back the chemistry into this classic text.

OK, it seems that the new authors of the 5th edition actually took to heart soem of the amazon.com critiques of the 4th edition. The chapters are more structured, and the worst chapters of the previous editions have been completely overhauled. There is a modest increase in the amount of quantitative materrial, although its quality still cannot rival some other biochem textbooks targeting the same audience (e.g. the wonderful Mathews, van Holde and Ahern text).

The 5th edition also succumbed to a malaise common to most textbooks when they are taken over by a different set of authors: an absolute overkill of "new pedagogical features". Icons, boxes, keywords, conceptual insights, structural insights etc. belong well to a study guide, but here they just interrupt the flow of the exposition unnecesarily. The simplicity of layout and the illustrations was one of the strengths of previous editions, and it seems to be lost here.

Also, without questioning the importance of the structural data that accumulated over the past decade, I am very doubtfull of the pedagogical value of their extensive use to explain basic biochemical concepts: way too often they just add additional complexity that moots the point the authors are trying to convey. Just look at the figure 10.21 - without the accompanying animation, it is about the poorest (least illustrative) depiction of the T to R transition in hemoglobin I have ever seen.

Overall, it is an updated text that will please Stryer fans. Those using other textbooks (Mathews, Lehninger) will have no reason whatsoever to switch to this one.

I needed to purchase this book for my graduate class in biochemistry. I found it to be NOT user friendly in the least. Most books I have used for biochemistry come with a great set of definitions. This book not only doesn't come with an appendix with definitions but doesn't explicitely define words in the text. I finally found the "definitions" appendix at the only website (how nice of them...and how cheap can you get. Most books if they have a website also have definitions in the back).
I should also mention it does not have a thorough index. Major subjects are neither defined nor shown in the index. Several times I had to go to either my organic chem book (Morrison & Boyd...great book), the Lippencotes (spelling) biochemistry review text (also a great concise book), or my under graduate biochemistry book (and study guide. Garrett and Grisham) to find information due to either the lack of information in this book or difficulty in finding it.
Also, the layout of the book is terrible. Although proteins are now THE significant phase of biochemistry, the introduction of DNA and mRNA in later portions of the book is rediculous. If you follow the basic flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to Protein it is much more easily understood. Throwing in the flow of genetic information at chapter 5 and later in chapter 27 discussing DNA replication, RNA synthesis and splicing (ch 28) and protein production (ch 29) makes no sense whatsoever. The order is correct but to place this information at the back of the book when it is necessary to understand some of the basic systems of the cell is rediculous. It is like learning all the organic chemistry reactions without understanding the basics and reasoning behind organic chemistry.

I helped teach three terms of upper division biochemistry with this book and this book is terrible!! Don't get this confused with the Stryer book (although he is listed as an author, the book IS NOT written in his style). For non-biochem people, get the real Stryer book and for biochem people get the Matthews or the Voet book.

Celeste, BS, PharmD (soon). This text is unintelligible to a student of pharmacy. The lack of a good index or even a glossary of terms is painful at best, and downright unforgivable at worst. There are many errors in sentence structure and grammar. Continue searching for a text that can be understood if you are an intermediate level student, or knowledge seeker.

Which is why its a 300 level class. you really need to read the chapter 2x to get the feel for things. Yes you can go to class but if you prefer to study at home, read carefully and fish out notes, read a couple more times to take notes and understand it. BTW its the same as the next edition so save yourself some money and just get this edition. How much can biochemistry really change?

I had this textbook for Biochem 1 and 2 and I thought it was excellent. It went in-depth when it was needed. The authors choose to leave out some reactions (using multiple arrows) and I thought that was great because it wasn't really needed in most cases. Sometimes there were questions though on how to get to one structure from the last. Pictures were great and really helped to picture what was going on.

The product was better than I asked for! Perfect shape and great deal! Would definately do business with again!!