which organic chem book to buy?
OK, so you’re considering which book to get for 2 semester intro organic chemistry. Just buy the assigned text for the course, right? well, maybe. You should know there are 2 basic approaches to the teaching of organic chem: The functional group approach and mechanism approach. By far, the former is much more commonly used and the way organic chem has been taught for decades. The problem is this approach promotes tedious memorization and you can be overwhelmed by the volume. Also, most organic chemists don’t think in terms of functional groups. They understand their subject by organizing/systematizing reactions according to mechanism and reaction type as governed by a few basic principles. The number of books that support the rxn./mechanism approach are few in number. They are (this list may be incomplete): Organic Chemistry by Marye Anne Fox, James K. Whitesell (ISBN 0763721972) Organic Chemistry by Clayden, Greeves, Warren, Wothers A Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry (6th E
