Edition

In the very evening that I gave a chapter of Harrison's to the girl of our ward to read, I received a Facebook message from HM - one of my university classmates.

"I have checked your statistics book reference in your web site unfortunately this one is printed in 1991 and the next edition will be OK in mid-2009. Any new suggestions ?"

I replied, "Statistics has not advanced that fast; the 1991 edition is good enough for any purpose - and probably easier to read."

For a similar reason I keep a copy of the first edition of Gray's Anatomy: human structure has not evolute in any noticeable extend over the past 100 years. The same argument also applies for classics by Adam Smith (on economy), Benjamin Graham (on investment), and so forth.

No, it's more than that. The same principle may also apply to subjects that do advance quickly, such as internal medicine. It is generally better to read a well-written but slightly outdated book than the most updated publication whose existence serves nothing but the ego of the author - or worse, the administrator.