What a great bodybuilding book. Bill Pearl created the "bible" of bodybuilding excercises. No one will admit it of course, but it seems nearly all other bodybuilding "how-to" books have borrowed from the master. Here's what he created: Over 640 pages of bodybuilding knowledge; mostly on excercise mechanics, with free-weights predominant (although machines WELL represented). Being a professional illustrator myself (bodybuilding is only my avocation), I can only praise the illustrator, Joan C. Pledger, for her OUTSTANDING line art illustrations of the incredibly numerous excercises. That job must have taken her forever. But it was worth it! Pearl has broken the book down into body-part sections (e.g., Shoulders, Back, Triceps, etc.) and given us every conceivable excercise possible. There are all the variations (i.e., similar excercise with barbell and then dumbbell). Excercises you never even knew existed. Trust me. If you had, YOU would have written this book. I've heard all the arguments ("Pearl was just bulking up the book with every excercise he could think of..."), but brother, that just misses the point. Here you have the one, the only source you'll ever need if you plan to bodybuild for any length of time at all. It's up to YOU to figure out which excercises to use. Don't have dumbbells? Not to worry...Pearl has a barbell excercise that will do just fine. Tired of the old Triceps Pushdown? No problem. Pick one of the MANY other triceps excercises, and get back to work. Pearl has succinct, cogent textual explanations of all the excercises, and he's even rated them by degree of difficulty. What more could anyone want? How can anyone complain about this masterpiece? I don't know...it's beyond me. I've owned it twice. Once in paperback when I was young (sniff), and now, again, in hardcover because I love it so much. Don't listen to the uninformed nincompoops who only recommend "their" excercises as being the "only" ones that produce results. Liberate yourself; listen to your own body; USE THE BOOK, and get results. If you're a bodybuilder and you haven't at least borrowed this book, you're really missing out.