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Principles of Molecular Virology
Principles of Molecular Virology, Fourth Edition provides an essential introduction to modern virology in a clear and concise manner. It is a highly enjoyable and readable text with numerous illustrations that enhance the reader's understanding of important principles.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1993
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May 9, 2021
First of all a disclaimer: I am a complete layman in the field of virology, biochemistry and molecular biology, so it might be that I am not an intended audience of this book.
The book felt poorly written. The way information is presented lacks cohesion. Something is mentioned and you are referred to look for more detailed information two chaptes ahead, but it is difficult to understand the part you are reading without that information. Other times some phenomenon is just mentioned but not explained in any detail, which leaves you wondering, why was it mentioned at all - so that you could learn the name without even understanding what it means?
Often explanations are not deep and detailed enough to help the reader to understand how something is really working. Why even mention that bunyaviruses have genes G1 and G2 in their genome molecule M, if it is never explained what those genes do?
In general the book feels like student's notes taken during the lecture, under the assumption that the reader will be already well familiar with the material and merely needs a list of things he learned as a reminder.
Now don't get me wrong, I did learn a lot about viruses from reading this book. But I would like to believe that there are better books on the subject.
The book felt poorly written. The way information is presented lacks cohesion. Something is mentioned and you are referred to look for more detailed information two chaptes ahead, but it is difficult to understand the part you are reading without that information. Other times some phenomenon is just mentioned but not explained in any detail, which leaves you wondering, why was it mentioned at all - so that you could learn the name without even understanding what it means?
Often explanations are not deep and detailed enough to help the reader to understand how something is really working. Why even mention that bunyaviruses have genes G1 and G2 in their genome molecule M, if it is never explained what those genes do?
In general the book feels like student's notes taken during the lecture, under the assumption that the reader will be already well familiar with the material and merely needs a list of things he learned as a reminder.
Now don't get me wrong, I did learn a lot about viruses from reading this book. But I would like to believe that there are better books on the subject.
Displaying 1 of 1 review