Classic textbooks and the challenge of ongoing learning

Gazettabyte asked its Facebook followers if there is a textbook they value more than others, and why.

It could be a book from student days or a more recent one, work-related. Also asked were readers' interest and experiences with newer styles of learning - online, and books with interactive elements and accompanying websites. Books here include business and technology titles.

The question regarding textbooks arose after getting a copy of Networked Life: 20 Questions and Answers by Mung Chiang. The book asks and answers such questions as:

• What makes CDMA work? 
• How does Google rank web pages? 
• What is inside the cloud of iCloud? 

This is an undergraduate textbook for a Princeton University course aimed at electrical engineering and computer science students.

Networked Life is very different from traditional textbooks. It stresses real applications and practical examples. Moreover, each question - a chapter in the book - is answered at two levels: a short generally accessible answer and a more rigorous in-depth treatment that includes diagrams, graphs and maths.

Back to Gazettabyte's Facebook followers. Broadbandtends' Teresa Mastrangelo answers that she has a marketing textbook that she still references: Marketing Management by Philip Kotler. "I even bought a more current version of the same book," she says.

Yuriy Babenko goes for Govind Agrawal's Fiber-Optic Communication Systems, "the bible for all things optical".

Professor Izzat Darwazeh, head of the Communications and Information Systems Group at University College London cites two titles: Introduction to Communication Systems by Ferrel G. Stremler and Schilling and Belove's: Electronic Circuits Discrete and Integrated.

"Both books are from my undergraduate days, but still are relevant today and both are very well written and readable," says Darwazeh. "I used them to learn and use them to teach. Both have sufficient detail to understand the subjects, move from absolute beginnings to advanced levels and have plenty of examples and questions at the end of each chapter."

So what textbook do you recommend and why? Would you highlight any business or technology books that are particularly useful and any online learning resources? Please comment.

Further reading:

Website to accompany the Networked Life book, click here.  

Gazettabyte's recommended books, click here

And if you are involved in continual learning and skill acquisition, here are two suggested titles:

1. Hacking your education by Dale Stephens
2. The first 20 hours: How to learn anything ... fast by John Kaufman

Comments

[Alastair Brydon]

“The GSM System for Mobile Communications” by Mouly and Pautet was a ground-breaking textbook published in 1992. GSM was the new kid on the block; a pan-European standard for digital cellular communication, which subsequently transformed mobile communications around the globe. The problem with the standard was that it was defined in a sprawling set of documents that was difficult to interpret if the reader had not been part of its development.

The textbook captured the essential elements of the system design, cutting across radio, network, handset, signalling and management aspects, in a highly accessible way. It was an invaluable resource for mobile telecom engineers in the 1990s and in some departments it seemed like everyone had a copy. Mobile technology has moved on, but I still refer to my copy from time to time for a reminder of the fundamentals.

[Rebecca Andersen]

I completely agree with Teresa on the Kotler text, Marketing Management. For those interested in social media, I recommend "Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals." If you are looking for a complete overview of the various social media channels and how to measure their effectiveness, this text provides some practical guidelines. The authors are currently working on "Share This Too" and I am eagerly awaiting the release for my PR students.