Janeway's Immunobiology

Serious immunology

Phew! This book is not for the faint-of-heart. I used this as a textbook for an introductory immunology course, and reading each chapter was quite a difficult, but educational, endeavor. I get the feeling that it was designed to be used more as a reference for physicians and immunologists, and it would be good for that purpose since each chapter can stand alone fairly well (in other words, good for the reader who has already taken a good course in immunology). There is tremendous attention to detail with this book. It is very dense, and although there is repetition from chapter-to-chapter (necessary to bring the full picture together), not a sentence is wasted. The figures are consistent and for the most part, well-done. Immunology is just not an easy subject to present, so I can't fault this book for its presentation of the material. It did just as fine a job of that as I think any book could. I did use a simpler supplemental book to help me understand the subject, which was excellent!! That book is How the Immune System Works, Includes Desktop Edition (Wiley Desktop Editions). If someone is looking to get a more cursory education of the immune system, I would certainly recommend THAT book, and certainly not THIS book. For what it is though, this is certainly a winner of a textbook. Read more