Rating: 
Summary: Not bad but could be better
Review: Goodbook for graduate engineers but for us undergrads, this book is a little bit hard to learn from simply because there isn't enough example problems. Also, more answer to the problems would help.
Rating:
Summary: Well, it's helpful if you've seen the information elsewhere
Review: I had the 6th edition of this book as the primary text book in my ME design class. It certainly has a wealth of data and formulae for design, but I found its explainations and examples very vague -- particularly if you're coming to it for the first time, or even the second or third time. In fact I frequently found myself confused by information I already knew well before reading this text. If you just need a formula, this is certainly a great reference. If you really need to know how that formula is applied or how to approach the problem, I'd look elsewhere. I also agree with a previous writer: the fatigue section is particularly lacking.
Rating: 
Summary: Content is excellent but the publisher should read chapter 7
Review: I never took a machine design course but I learned from scratch from the 4th edition of Shigley. Our library copy is dog eared but still in one piece after over a decade of constant use. The text is clear and comprehensive. The examples are helpful in illustrating the principles. The problems make you think. BUT . . . I bought myself a copy of the 5th edition so that I wouldn't have to search for our shared copy every time I wanted to check up on something. I've used it for a few months and already the binding is cracked and there are have several sections of pages that may fall out. The content is excellent but the book fails in fatigue.
Rating: 
Summary: No Nonsense Reference
Review: I purchased the paperback version of this book for economic reasons. I first bought this book while out in industry, working as a design engineer. As far as a usable reference, I put this book high on my list. It doesn't have all the answers, but it provides plenty of knowledge and technical insight to keep my supervisor happy, my vendors honest, and throttle the sales/marketing group every once in a while. Cudos to Joe and Larry.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not for study...... maybe good reference
Review: If this book wasn't so full of valuable information, I wouldn't have given it a single star. The proof reader slept through this edition. There are more errors than I could have ever imagined. They sometimes refer to the same variable by different names in succeeding paragraphs! Many times they leave off critical subscript identifiers or don't label important values in the example figures. Small errors crop up all the way through this edition. Hope they fix the Seventh!
Rating:
Summary: Hope they proof read the 7th edition!
Review: If this book wasn't so full of valuable information, I wouldn't have given it a single star. The proof reader slept through this edition. There are more errors than I could have ever imagined. They sometimes refer to the same variable by different names in succeeding paragraphs! Many times they leave off critical subscript identifiers or don't label important values in the example figures. Small errors crop up all the way through this edition. Hope they fix the Seventh!
Rating:
Summary: Good book for Machine Design Engineers
Review: It's not a complete guide but relatively comprehensive. I used this book in my undergrad studies and continue to use it on a monthly basis ten years later. My first copy suffered from binding failure (as noted by another reviewer) and was replaced by my employer. It may not be a good text for self-teaching but it is a fine reference later in your engineering career. Both the authors are well respected and the methods are classical yet readily accepted as "good engineering practice."
Rating:
Summary: Good book for Machine Design Engineers
Review: It's not a complete guide but relatively comprehensive. I used this book in my undergrad studies and continue to use it on a monthly basis ten years later. My first copy suffered from binding failure (as noted by another reviewer) and was replaced by my employer. It may not be a good text for self-teaching but it is a fine reference later in your engineering career. Both the authors are well respected and the methods are classical yet readily accepted as "good engineering practice."
Rating:
Summary: Good tables, rest of book is bad.
Review: Like I said, the back of the book has some great tables (although they could use some organizing). The rest of the book is pretty bad. The review problems ask you to do things the book itself never mentions. Lots of material my professor even said isn't even in the book, but it requires you to know how to do it anyway. The example problems are seldom helpful, because it skips too many steps. I think the author assumes too much about what a beginning design student knows. It goes from Step A to Step P, all the intermediate steps you have to figure out yourself. I don't recommend any professor to torture their students with this book. Get a better one.
Rating:
Summary: Important material bad organization - presentation
Review: The material this book presents is very important for an engineer. The presentation of the material is very bad. It is very difficult for a student to follow. The mathematical equations are written in unaccaptable form. They are not even properly displayed. Proofs of equations and deriviation of equations do not follow an organized manner. This book is good for peaople that have prior knowledge of the material, and not for students.
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