A couple years ago I tried a "foreign" book. The authors (Jeremy
Pfeffer and Shomo Nir) are from Hebrew University and the book is
published by Imperial College Press.
I really like the way the book reads. The students did not. It is high
on text and low on pictures, graphs, and other distractions. That
seemed good to me, but came across really bad for students. I think
students don't want to read. They just want to look at the pictures and
other distractions and see what they can learn without actually reading
the text.
The next time I taught the course I used Serway et.al. This is much
more standard and much more glitzy. The students responded to this a
whole lot better, but it is not clear they learned any more.
A book I would like to use (and I do use it myself for reference) is the
book by John Brehm and William Mullin titled "Introduction to the
Structure of Matter, A Course in Modern Physics." It approaches being a
graduate-level text and so it is probably too rigorous for my typical
class. Plus, unlike Serway and clones, it is heavy on text, light on
diagrams and other distractions, and has zero color pictures. However,
I personally think it explains things very nicely and very thoroughly.
I used to use the book by Frank Blatt and I recommend it... But it is
now out of print.
In the end I am not recommending any of these books for the required
text, although the typical student would like Serway. However, if you
have access to Pfeffer and Nir, or to Brehm and Mullin, you ought to
look at them and consider if you might want one or both in your personal
library.
I am currently considering Krane, but have never used it.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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