Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Dobbins - The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding: The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised

Pros: Great pictures and descriptions of exercises. An easy to understand resource.
Cons: The info on health, nutrition and diet may need to be supplemented.

Pros: Motivational, and Great Reference for someone familiar with the gym
Cons: not for beginners

The first thing you must realize is that the audience of this book is not intended to be any joe or jane off the street who is thinking of maybe doing a little weightlifting. I think people become frustrated if they are new to weightlifting and they...

Pros: For any athlete or bodybuilder
Cons: All photo's are in black and white (If that is a negative)

This book covers everything from proper nutrition to what types of movements/lifts are besting for adding muscle. Wonderful pictures of the glory days of bodybuilding along with great advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Dobbins grace every page of this book along with great stories.

Here are the 3 main things in order that I've learned from this book and my experience as a amateur bodybuilder.

#1 Nutrition
#2 Proper Rest/Sleep
#3 Lifting Weight

Diet advice is written in great detail. Whether you're trying to gain weight or lose it; there is plenty to read about.

Steroids are also covered on this book including the negatives of using them. If a parent is buying this book for a "child" between the ages of 14-17; the book does a great job of advising them not to use these performance enhancing drugs.

This book is an amazing piece of literature; and a I'm sure any reader will notice that a lot of work has gone into putting it together. If you're thinking about purchasing it; don't hesitate.