For years, my self-education was stupid and wasteful. I learned by consuming blog posts, Wikipedia articles, classic texts, podcast episodes, popular books, [video lectures](http://academicearth.org/), peer-reviewed papers, [Teaching Company](http://www.teach12.com/) courses, and Cliff's Notes. How inefficient!

I've since discovered that *textbooks* are usually the quickest and best way to learn new material. That's what they are *designed* to be, after all. Less Wrong [has](http://lesswrong.com/lw/2xt/learning_the_foundations_of_math/) [often](http://lesswrong.com/lw/ow/the_beauty_of_settled_science/) [recommended](http://lesswrong.com/lw/jv/recommended_rationalist_reading/fcg?c=1) the "read textbooks!" method. [Make progress by accumulation, not random walks](http://lesswrong.com/lw/1ul/for_progress_to_be_by_accumulation_and_not_by/).

But textbooks vary widely in quality. I was forced to read some awful textbooks in college. The ones on American history and sociology were memorably bad, in my case. Other textbooks are exciting, accurate, fair, well-paced, and immediately useful.

What if we could compile a list of the best textbooks on every subject? That would be *extremely* useful.

Let's do it.

-- Continue reading at [LessWrong](http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gu/the_best_textbooks_on_every_subject/)