As I went back to uni this year to 'top up' my degree, one of the subjects I had to do was immunology. Immunology is interesting but the concepts can sometimes be confusing. Since my notes from uni consisted of a series of diagrams (the handouts) with my own notes scribbled on, I needed a book that would help to clarify some things - this book was exactly what I needed.
---------------------- GENERAL INFO ----------------------
Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Mosby; 4 edition (23 Oct 2003) ISBN-10: 0723433364 ISBN-13: 978-0723433361 Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 11.1 x 1 cm
David Male is a professor of Biology at the Open University. He has authored and co-authored other immunology books.
------------ LAYOUT ------------
Contents: consists of 5 main sections (listed below) with subsections. To be honest, I didn't really use the contents; I used the index more as this is such a small book. 1. The immune system 2. Antigen recognition 3. Immune responses 4. Immunopathology 5. Immunological techniques
The Index was very useful for checking if something covered in my course was in the book, so I could look it up, but I was not used to the fact that the index page was at the front of the book.
Each topic is only a couple of pages, and starts with a heading in capitals, then a series of subheadings in bold with text. this makes the book easy to follow.
Overall, the layout was logical and it was easy to find what I needed.
------------------ MY OPINION ------------------
I'm really glad I found this book as I found some of the larger textbooks confused me with their rambling. I would recommend using the internet or a textbook you like to do further reading, then using this book to summarise and revise. As it is so small, and not very heavy, and the language is very concise and easy to understand, I found myself reading this book whenever I had time on the bus etc.
The diagrams used are simple, and in pastel colours (easy on the eyes!) and very easy to replicate. I did wish some of the diagrams had captions though - but the explanations were easy enough to find in the text. There are also lots of tables throughout the book, which are very useful (e.g Antigen presenting cells, their location, the MHC class is present on them, and what cell they present to).
There was also some information in the book that was not present in my notes, which hopefully earned me extra marks in my exam, but did not take much effort to memorise since the text was so concise.
I found the section on immunological techniues the most useful as it explains in a couple of sentences what the technique involves and what it can be used for, and some of the techniques have excellent diagrams to accompany them.
I personally found this book indispensable, as it encouraged me to study more. I only wish a book of this format existed for all my other subjects!
There were very few topics covered in my course that were not covered in this book, and the author states at the beginning that 'naturally, a book of this kind cannot include everything of interest to immunologists; I have tried to cover all the essential areas of the subject, but I should be pleased to know when readers consider that particular subjects deserve further detail.'
There were a couple of topics that were, as stated above, too lengthy to cover in detail, so it would be hard to understand completely just from the book (e.g complement) but once I did further reading, then reread it, made a lot of sense!
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has to do any immunology in their course. It is currently listed on amazon for £18.99 however I took it out from the uni library and renewed it (a lot!) since there were never any holds on it - so really, it was my secret weapon (if a weapon can help pass an exam....?!)
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