Biochemistry and cell biology textbooks
This page attempts to give an overview of commonly used biochemistry textbooks. Please help update the page.
The classics and competitors
| short title | latest edition | ebook | $ price | € price | rating | update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberts Essential | 2023 (6th) | $130 kindle | $130 | €84 | 4.7 (40x) | 2026-01 |
| Garrett | 2023 (7th) | no | $86 | €99 | 5.0 (9!) | 2026-01 |
| Lehninger Core | 2025 (1st) | $130 kindle | $130 | €76 | 4.4 (288x) 8th! | 2026-01 |
| Lodish | 2021 (9th) | $133 yes | $217 | €82 | 4.2 (30x) | 2026-01 |
| Pollard | 2023 (4th) | $93 kindle | $89 | €95 | 4.8 (20x) | 2026-01 |
| Stryer/Tymoczko | 2025 (5th) | ? | $88 | €68 | 4.4 33x 10th! | 2026-01 |
| Voet | 2024 (6th) | $122 kindle | $128 | €76 | 4.5 (2!) | 2026-01 |
| Campbell | 2024 (4th) | ? | $183 | €66 | 5 (2x)! | 2026-01 |
Prices are approximate and were looked up on amazon.com and amazon.de as indicated in the update column.
Ratings are amazon average star rating; the best score is 5; the number of reviews averaged is in brackets.
Several textbooks have recently added abbreviated versions. Only the latest is given above.
- Alberts: Essential Cell Biology (800 versus 1300 pages)
- Lehninger: Core Conepts (700 versus 1200 pages)
- Stryer: Short Course
- Voet: Fundamentals of Biochemistry
- Campbell: In Focus
eBooks
In 2011, only one of the classic textbooks above was made available as an ebook. In 2013, the only change was that Alberts is now also offered as a kindle ebook, much cheaper than at vitalsource. An additional caveat was that in early 2012 vitalsource did not sell outside the US/Ca although that may have changed.
A few smaller textbooks and guides can be read electronically (see below). In addition, many specialised or lesser known books are available as ebooks (search for biochemistry on amazon.com or amazon.de).
| title | latest edition | format | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molecular and Cell Biology For Dummies | 2009 | Kindle | 11€ | 4.5 (11x) |
| Biochemistry For Dummies | 2011 (2nd) | Kindle | 13€ | 3 (2x!) |
| Biochemistry Study Guide (Mobi) | 2006 | Kindle | 16€ | 5 (1x!!) |
| Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry | 2009 (28th) | Kindle | 33€ | 3.5 (6x) |
| title | latest | format | € | rating |
Prices are approximate and were looked up on amazon.com and amazon.de in December 2011.
Ratings are amazon average star rating; the best score is 5; the number of reviews averaged is in brackets.
Principles of Biology
Over 50 undergraduate instructors, artists, researchers, and journalists are composing a new digitial only textbook called Principles of Biology. The project is a collaboration of the Nature Publishing Group who provide editorial experience and faculty members of the California State University who review the material and advise the project [1]. The book was announced to be ready for internal CSU review by September 2011 [2]. Engadget has some screenshots.
NCBI Bookshelf
- Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2002, 4th ed. by Alberts, Johnson, Lewis, Raff, Roberts, Walter
- Molecular Cell Biology, 2000, 4th ed. by Lodish, Berk, Zipursky, Matsudaira, Baltimore, Darnell
- Biochemistry, 2002, 5th ed. by Berg, Tymoczko, Stryer
- Genomes, 2002, 2nd ed. by Brown
- Human Molecular Genetics, 1999, 2nd ed. by Strachan and Rea
- Developmental Biology, 2000, 6th ed. by Gilbert
Subtopics textbooks
Genetics
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genetics (Hartwell) | 2010 (4th) | no | 45€ | 4 (26) 3rd! |
| A Primer of Genome Science (Gibson) | 2009 (3rd) | no | 60€ | 4.5 (2) |
| Genes (Lewin) | 2009 (10th) | no | 53€ | 3.5 (6) |
| Introduction to Genetic Analysis (Griffiths) | 2010 (10th) | no | 53€ | 3.5 (16) 9th! |
| iGenetics (Russell) | 2009 (3rd) | no? | 78€ | 4 (5) |
| Genomes 3 (Brown) | 2006 (3rd) | no | 30€ | 3 (4) |
| Human Molecular Genetics (Strachan) | 2010 (4th) | vitalsource $103 | 55€ | 4.5 (14) 3rd! |
| Genetics in Medicine (Nussbaum) | 2007 (7th) | kindle 42€ | 59€ | 4.5 (8) |
Medical focus
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations (Devlin) | 2010 (7th) | no | 62€ | 4 (8x) |
| Janeway's Immunobiology | 2011 (8th) | vitalsource $92 | 47€ | 5 (5x) |
| The Cell (Cooper..) | 2009 (5th) | no | 106€ | 4 (1x!!) |
| The Biology of Cancer (Weinberg) | 2006 (1st) | vitalsource $98 | 106€ (new) | 5 (42) |
| short | latest | ebook | [ €] | [rating ] |
Developmental biology / Embryology
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developmental Biology (Gilbert) | 2010 (9th) | online, 51€ 180 days! | 52€ | 4 (19) |
| Principles of Development (Wolpert) | 2010 (4th) | no | 36€ | 3.5 (12) |
| Langman's Medical Embryology (Sadler) | 2011 (12th) | no | 58€ | 3.5 (41) 10th! |
| The Developing Human (Moore) | 2011 (9th) | kindle 44€ | 70€ | 3.5 (9) 8th! |
| Larsen's Human Embryology | 2008 (4th) | no | 65€ | 4.5 (3!) |
Kenneth Saladin reviews Sadler, Moore and Larsen and generally recommends Sadler.
Neuroscience
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Neurochemistry (Siegel) | 2011 (8th) | kindle 65€ | 72-96€ | 4.5 (2!) |
| Neuroscience (Purves) | 2011 (5th) | 58€ | 4.5 (37) | |
| From Neuron to Brain (Nicholls) | 2011 (5th) | ? | 4.5 (16) 4th! | |
| Medical Neurobiology (Mason) | 2011 (1st) | no | 56€ | 5 (4) |
| Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (Bear) | 2006 (3rd) | 41€ | 4.5 (33) | |
| Fundamental Neuroscience (Squire) | 2008 (3) | 3.5 (24) | ||
| The Neuron (Levitan, Kaczmarek) | 2001 (3rd) | 5 (7) | ||
| Principles of Neural Science (Kandel) | 2000 (4th) | 4.5 (47) |
Plant biochemistry
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants (Buchanan..) | 2012 (2nd) | ? | 117€ | 4 (10x) 1st ed. |
| Plant Physiology (Taiz & Zeiger) | 2010 (5th) | no | 62€ | 5 (4x) |
| Plant Biochemistry (Heldt..) | 2008 (4th) | only 3rd | 72€ | 4 (7x) |
Microbiology
| title | latest edition | ebook | € price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microbiology: An Introduction (Tortora) | 2009 (10th) | no | 114€ | 4.5 (48) |
| Prescott's Microbiology | 2010 (8th) | $99 | 174€* | 4.5 (8) |
| Brock Biology of Microorganisms | 2010 (13th) | no | 62€ | 4 (6) |
| Microbiology: Principles and Explorations (Black) | 2012 (8th) | kindle 7th! | 71€ | 4 (18) 7th! |
| Microbiology: A Systems Approach (Cowan) | 2011 (3rd) | no | 168€* | 4 (24) |
| Microbiology with Diseases by Body System (Bauman) | 2011 (3rd) | kindle | 152€* | 5 (15) |
| Microbiology: An Evolving Science (Slonczewski) | 2010 (2nd) | Adobe | 65€ | 5 (4) |
* only hardcover as of 2012/01
Laboratory methods
| short title | latest edition | ebook | $ price | € price | rating | update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boyer, Biochemistry Laboratory | 2010 (2nd) | no? | $74 | 61€ | 4.5 (8!) | 2013-11 |
| Reed, Practical Skills.. 4th 2013 | 2013 (4th) | no? | $57 | 44€ | none | 2013-11 |
Organic chemistry
Despite being old, Sykes' Mechanism in Organic Chemistry (6e, 1996) remains one of the best books to understand biochemical reactions logically, not just memorize them.
Non-English textbooks
| title | latest edition | language | price | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biochemie und Pathobiochemie (Löffler) | 2006 (8.) | German | 80€ | 3.5 (28) |
| Biochemie (Müller-Esterl) | 2010 (2.) | German | 55€ | 4 (18) |
| Biochemie des Menschen (Horn) | 2009 (4.) | German | 40€ | 4.5 (6) |
| Pflanzenbiochemie (Heldt..) | 2008 (4.) | German | 60€ | 4 (7x) |
| Experimentator: Proteinbiochemie & Proteomics | 2009 (6.) | German | 33€ | 5 (9) |
| Experimentator: Molekularbiologie & Genomics | 2008 (6.) | German | 33€ | 4.5 (14) |
| Experimentator: Zellkultur | 2011 (3.) | German | 33€ | 4 (7) |
| Experimentator: Immunologie | 2008 (3.) | German | 33€ | 5 (2!) |
| Experimentator: Neurowissenschaften | 2010 (1.) | German | 33€ | 5 (1!) |
Other links
- open access, collaborative Biochemistry Wikibook (under development)
- DIYbio/FAQ/Educational
