3 ms·

Somewhere in the 80's most basic science textbooks went from clear and concise to overly verbose and ladled to the hilt with colors and distracting "illustrati

Somewhere in the 80's most basic science textbooks went from clear and concise to overly verbose and ladled to the hilt with colors and distracting "illustration" clutter making most later editions not just worse, but even an assault on learning and understanding.

StefanBatory 2y ago
I was at library some time ago and skimmed upon some old textbooks, written still during the Communist rule here - and they just were so much better in terms of explaining things. (as long as they weren't history stuff, naturally.)
- rramadass 2y ago
  Soviet era Science Books for everybody's enjoyment - https://mirtitles.org/ https://mirtitles.org/ Concise, Information-dense and to-the-point unlike the majority of books being published today. Also checkout all "Dover Publications" catalog on Science/Mathematics/Engineering. Most are old classics and very good - https://store.doverpublications.com/ https://store.doverpublications.com/
  - andai 2y ago
    On the first link, I had to scroll for a while to find a single book in English, and then a while for the next one. But they are indeed there. Perhaps adding tags or sections by language would be helpful.
    - rramadass 2y ago
      What are you talking about? Most books on "Mirtitles" are in English (very good scans and some of them redone via LaTeX) and only a few are in other (mostly Indian) languages. Just search by name of book (eg. Calculus, Algebra etc.) or name of author (eg. Piskunov, Zeldovich etc.) or book series name (eg. Little Mathematics Library, Science for Everyone etc.) You can also click on the categories listed in blue below the "Follow" button on the right-hand side. The website is a blog and hence the books are listed in a series of entries. It is a real labour of love and i am grateful to the author(s) that such excellent scientific books are not lost in the mists of time but are available for free to the common public. Every Teacher/Student/Interested Layman should read these books. Finally, If you (or somebody else) wants to make the site better contact the site author and offer help; i am sure they would appreciate it.

StefanBatory 2y ago

I was at library some time ago and skimmed upon some old textbooks, written still during the Communist rule here - and they just were so much better in terms of explaining things. (as long as they weren't history stuff, naturally.)

rramadass 2y ago
Soviet era Science Books for everybody's enjoyment - https://mirtitles.org/ https://mirtitles.org/ Concise, Information-dense and to-the-point unlike the majority of books being published today. Also checkout all "Dover Publications" catalog on Science/Mathematics/Engineering. Most are old classics and very good - https://store.doverpublications.com/ https://store.doverpublications.com/
- andai 2y ago
  On the first link, I had to scroll for a while to find a single book in English, and then a while for the next one. But they are indeed there. Perhaps adding tags or sections by language would be helpful.
  - rramadass 2y ago
    What are you talking about? Most books on "Mirtitles" are in English (very good scans and some of them redone via LaTeX) and only a few are in other (mostly Indian) languages. Just search by name of book (eg. Calculus, Algebra etc.) or name of author (eg. Piskunov, Zeldovich etc.) or book series name (eg. Little Mathematics Library, Science for Everyone etc.) You can also click on the categories listed in blue below the "Follow" button on the right-hand side. The website is a blog and hence the books are listed in a series of entries. It is a real labour of love and i am grateful to the author(s) that such excellent scientific books are not lost in the mists of time but are available for free to the common public. Every Teacher/Student/Interested Layman should read these books. Finally, If you (or somebody else) wants to make the site better contact the site author and offer help; i am sure they would appreciate it.