Biochemistry By Stryer

Th!s is a superb book to understand the excitement of biochemistry and to understand its relevance to human health. Stryer's book presents biochemistry in a completely different manner. Unlike traditional textbooks, it presents each chapter giving a representative molecule or system for explanation and characterization of the material in that chapter. For example, haemoglobin and myoglobin are illustrated for explaining the three dimensional structure of proteins, lysozyme and chymotrypsin for explaining enzyme action, and a host of others. Each example is critically chosen, considering its role and function in life and metabolism. This makes the matter very interesting and practical. In parallel with these examples are descriptions of diseases and biochemical disorders as well as historical perspectives. Key points are italicized and help the reader to concisely and quickly summarise the material. The last part, molecular physiology, gives a lucid exposition of the fundamental b!ochemical processes in living organisms. In fact, the whole point of view in the book is a physiological one and the book does an outstanding job of presenting biochemistry in the context of human health and medicine. The book also has a generous dose of drawings of proteins, molecules and nucleic acids which makes it easy to visualize the material presented. The book is unlike Lehninger, which is essentially a traditional textbook. Even though Lehninger is great as an introductory book, Stryer is, in my opinion, the book to read if you want to learn biochemistry as a discipline which should be viewed as an exciting excursion into human metabolism and life.