The Birth of a Textbook - Comments

[Dr.D]

We had three amazing contests where the winners each won a copy of the book. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who participated! I wish we had more books to give away!

The contests and winners were:
PF Photo Contest, Physics+Maths (voting thread) - Winner: @Andy Resnick
Haiku/Limerick Contest - Winner: @kuruman
Educational Experience Account - Winner: @Dr.D

Thank you very much. I was utterly amazed. Thank you again.

 

[qspeechc]

I'm about to start writing a textbook myself, and I found this very helpful, so thank you for taking the time to write this Orodruin!

Btw, how close was the book to what you had originally planned? Do you wish you could have spent more time on it, or is it pretty close to what you wanted?

 

[Orodruin]

I'm about to start writing a textbook myself, and I found this very helpful, so thank you for taking the time to write this Orodruin!

Just happy you liked it!

Btw, how close was the book to what you had originally planned?

The original plan I had for the text is outlined in the Insight and you can compare it with the final table of contents. I touched on this briefly in the Insight as well, but generally I wrote more or less what I wanted to write from the beginning with the exception that some application chapters had to go because I realized they would essentially be books on their own if I wrote what I wanted about those subjects. I also added the chapter on symmetries and group theories because I found that many of my students could use a short and quickly accessible introduction to the subject without taking a full group theory course. It also added the benefit of being able to develop some particular insights in later chapters.

Do you wish you could have spent more time on it, or is it pretty close to what you wanted?

I think it is pretty close to what I wanted. I am sure there are typos in some places, but at some time you reach a point when further proofreading will no longer give you enough return. I am rather happy with how it turned out.

You might also notice that you suffer from fatigue with respect to your text at many times. My suggestion is to take it easy for some time and think of other things, do not force it and your inspiration will likely return eventually. If you just force through it, you risk ending up with chapters that are cut short because you just wanted some text on that particular subject to be there.

 

[romsofia]

I was looking to get the ebook version of this as I always enjoy reading Oroduin's insights on posts here on PF. However, the quality of the ebook is... not very good. I hope they fix it soon!

 

[Orodruin]

Time to start your next book

Done!
(Edit: Fun fact. Since the solution chapters are much longer, the Amazon Look Inside preview contains the formulations of the first 109 problems ... no solutions though ...)
I also completed the other two tasks mentioned in the beginning of the Insight.