Looking for biology books

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Hi, I'm new

After spending the last couple years studying computer science and working as a part time software engineer, I've taken an interest in biology .. ok interest is an understatement, I've become slightly obsessed with understanding how living things work from the atomic level up.

I'd take classes on the subject, but I wouldn't do well if I didn't go in already knowing the material. I can't learn in a room full of other people, listening to some annoying big ego professor drone on.. trying to remember all the stupid little assignments and get them in on time.. I need solitude when learning new things.

I guess I'm looking for the 'industry standard' for biology texts.. solid, thorough, up to date, and without bias.

Subjects that caught my eye so far:
Chemistry, Molecular biology/Biochemistry, Mathematical biology, Microbiology, Systems biology, Computational bio modeling, synthetic biology.. ect..

Anything involving both computer science and biology would be especially helpful.

So, any recommendations on books?

--Thanks

This is one book I particularly love

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cell-Bi ... 0815341296

but I love Cell Bio not systems biology.

I have both Biology and Computers as special interests too.

My favorite book on biology isn't a textbook, but is fun to read anyway: http://www.amazon.com/Microcosm-Coli-Sc ... 600&sr=1-1

If you like evolution and you want to connect biology to computers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinbots
I used to use that, until I made my own.

Also, there's a book about using biology in computing: http://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Organisms ... 031226691X

:D

Start on Campbell/Reece. It is the standard introductory text in biology, and a necessary pre-requisite to getting anything worthwhile out of the more specialized books. I read every word of the 7th edition when I was in high school, and it was more valuable than everything else I did in k-12 combined.
For genetics, there are plenty of suitable books. I read Genetics by Pierce, and it was adequate.
For microbiology you want Brock "Biology of Microorganisms."
For mathematical biology a good first book is Strogatz Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. The primary focus may not be biology (it does include bio applications) but it covers most of the relevant mathematical methods.
There are very few books out as of yet on computational biology, bioinformatics, synthetic bio, etc, and those that are out are lousy, out of date, or both. Those are new fields, and they aren't a big textbook market yet.

Incidentally, if you are a competent programmer and gain a reasonable understanding of biology, you will have no trouble finding a job in a bio lab. Biologists are terrible with computers and math, so they need people who actually know how to do useful stuff.

Kolya that's awesome that you're interested in biology. I also took an interest in biology after self-teaching computer science and it's now a full-time job for me.

You mention that you don't want to learn in a classroom environment, but as you know, unlike computer science where everyone has or can easily afford all the equipment/apparatus needed to become proficient in computer science (i.e. a computer), the only way to really become proficient in biology is to work in a research laboratory, and (perhaps unfortunately) the only way to do that is to study the subject formally.

In the meanwhile, here's what I think are the best books for some of the subjects you mention: -

The important trio....
Molecular Biology: - Molecular Biology of the Cell (Bruce Alberts)
Biochemistry: - Biochemistry (Stryer)
Genetics: - Lewin Genes

Microbiology: - Brock Biology of Microorganisms

There's a LOT to cover in these books. Comp. bio and systems bio. are relatively new fields which I can't recommend books for off my head, but I would suggest having a decent grasp of the main ideas in the books above is a prerequisite.

Here's my opinion as a fellow AS person and as a molecular biologist. If I were to start from scratch trying to get up to speed with modern biology, I would probably start with Stryer's (or similar) Biochemistry and get the major macromolecules down (i.e. proteins and nucleic acids). From there I would probably focus on prokaryotic biology and learn about uniceullar bacteria and and how transcription/translation works, and the way genes and their products can be regulated in response to various stimulii or stresses (e.g. heat shock, nutrient depletion, etc.). After that, I would move up to simple eukaryotes (again unicellular) and their organelles, what they do, and how their genomes differ from prokaryotes (including introns/exons). At this point you can go in whichever direction your interest takes you and this is a pretty good foundation for moving on to studying the biology of multicellular organisms as well as bioinformatics, computational biology, etc.

Good luck!

Not necessarily. Several of the most productive researchers in biology at my university have never studied biology in a formal setting. They have degrees in physics, mathematics, or computer science, and then go do research in biology. There isn't even a need for a physical lab in the sense that a traditional biologist would think of it for what the OP described- computational, mathematical, and theoretical biology can be done from the comfort of one's laptop. No need to sit watch over cell cultures.

Yes computational/mathematical/theoretical biology can be done on a computer, though they usually work in collaboration with wet lab biologists.

PS I have a phd and work daily on both wet lab and dry lab projects including microarray, chip-seq, etc. The hardcore computational biologists/bioinformaticians I work with who sit at computer terminals all day writing python code typically consider themselves computer scientists / mathematicians who work on biology problems.