Book suggestion category proposal
I was thinking for a new category called Book suggestion (not only book suggestion either). Usually, most of Science students like to study Science books (their favorite subject) by themselves. Some of them self-study rather than getting to University. And, some of them looks for book suggestion. If professional "students" (Physicist) suggest book than, "we" could get perfect book. So that, we can learn easily also.
Usually, Physics is interesting subject. Most of School and College students fell in love with Physics (:D :P). Some of them start by studying very higher theories but, when they think that they should start from beginning then they starts from Classical Mechanics. And, some people thinks "Should I study Quantum Mechanics/Relativity/String theory now?"
When looking for book suggestion they can add further information either. (Like) I have studied Classical Mechanics,"Should I study Lagrangian now"? I have studied Lagrangian, Hamilton, Relativity, "should I study Quantum Mechanics now?"
2 answers
The experience we had on the physics site Somewhere Else may be instructive (I've already written a little about it on Software Meta). In short, against my wishes they were allowed but because there was a fairly strong and well enforced notion of what a "good" answer would look like it worked out much better than I expected.
As a result of that experience my position now would be
Not without a strong consensus about what rules will be used to establish quality control.
I don't believe we have enough steady participation for such a consensus to have emerged as yet.
I'd also like to note that PSE had rules mostly about the answers which has the advantage of directing the rules at people who are already familiar with the site, but it would not be unreasonable to have a few basic rules for questions as well.
In my opinion a good question in this realm is specific enough that proposed answers can be tested against the desired qualities on a point by point basis. For instance a user asks for a graduate level mechanics text in a terse style but featuring answers to exercises. If I wanted to suggests Goldstein's classic text, I could note that it (A) is a graduate level text, (B) is moderately but not extremely terse (and little wordier than L&L, for instance), (C.i) has fairly extensive exercises with (C.ii) final numeric answers for some, but no workings. Which would put a reader in a good position to judge if it met their needs.
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"Which xxx is best?" are poor questions for this Q&A site. When "best" can't be quantified, all you really get is a popularity contest. Another problem is when the available choices change over time.
Let's not go there.
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