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Rating: 
Summary: For those who REALLY want to know physics!
Review: An outstanding book! Although I've only read about half of it, I've been thoroughly impressed with each and every chapter. The authors don't just tell "what", they tell "why", the latter often constituting the greater part of any discussion. Every significant equation, concept, or what have you, is fully derived and explained, usually along with a brief history of each. Rich in theory, the content is engaging, and should please those with even the most insatiable curiousities about physics. What strikes me most, though, is the authors' obvious enjoyment of and devotion to the subject. It became pretty evident to me after just a few pages! I do, however, sympathize with other readers' criticisms of the end-of-the-chapter exercises; they are often far more difficult than any of the examples in the chapter, and on more than one occasion I've had to run screaming to my professor for help. A good working knowledge of calculus is absolutely essential to solving most of these problems. But I have to say, after solving nearly two hundred of them, my understanding of the subject has improved tremendously. In short, the problems themselves are excellent, despite being of a slightly higher caliber than the chapter prepares you for. I strongly recommend this book to those who desire a solid understanding of physics, as well as to those who enjoy studying physics just for the sake of studying physics. Though not perfect, it's an excellent guide to a most difficult subject.
Rating: 
Summary: not meant for learning physics
Review: I had the author of this book as my professor for Physics. We used this textbook and it was just really, a waste of our money. The textbook did nothing to help us learn physics in any way at all. It just confuses you more when the author takes the most complicated path to teach you a concept when it could be explained so much simpler. I had already taken a college-level physics class before this, and there are so many other better textbooks out there than this one. I have to say that they do have colorful and detailed illustrations which sometimes help, but the wording needs much help.
Rating:
Summary: WORST TEXTBOOK EVER
Review: Of course I haven't read every textbook ever written; the title of this review is hyperbolic (in the semantic sense). But seriously, I don't know what the target audience for this book is, but it couldn't possibly be undergraduates trying to learn physics. The following are the flaws which come to mind most immediately: 1) Definitions of terms are moving targets. No term that is defined in this book is used in the same sense twice. You can expect at least three "definitions" of a term over the course of one chapter, and even more over the course of several chapters. This has made it very difficult for me to retain any of the information presented.
2) It's extremely cluttered. Ninety-nine percent of the book is devoted to very specific problems rather than giving lucid explanations of general principles which would lead to a clear understanding of the general principles. It's very difficult to solve specific problems without a clear understanding of the general principles that can be applied to achieve a solution.
3) The author's derivations of equations are frequently very confusing. My confusion generally is caused by one of two things:
a) very large steps are frequently made without any explanation of what math was being done to get from one line to the next.
b) typographical errors are plentiful, so I never know if it's some math that I haven't done between the steps or if it's actually an error.
In the end I'm frequently immobilized by baffling conclusions that the author draws seemingly out of nowhere. To sum this all up, I might wish this book on my worst enemy after it goes through another five editions.
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