I would guess that few of these books are heavier than the International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus. The publisher, Wiley, a few days ago kindly sent me a review copy. This book is so big — 1980 large pages — that they had to divide it into two volumes. Together they weigh 15 pounds.

This book is in fact so big that it took 4 editors-in-charge, 11 section editors, and 222 contributors to write its 116 chapters (or articles). All of the contributors are well-respected academics and doctors. That’s probably why they didn’t ask me to contribute.

Still, the book mentions mendosa.com at least six times. The article on “Computer-assisted Diabetes Education and Information Technology in Diabetes Care” by Dr. Eldon Lehmann of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Imperial College in London, U.K., refers to my Software page. Dr. Lehmann developed an outstanding and free software program, called AIDA, to simulate the effects of changes in insulin and diet on your blood glucose profile. I mirror his interactive educational diabetes/insulin tutorial on my site.

This is the third edition of this truly International Textbook. Encyclopedic in scope, it is the most complete and wide-ranging work on diabetes, covering all aspects of diabetes in a multidisciplinary approach. Sections covered include epidemiology, diagnosis, pathogenesis, management and complications of diabetes, and public health issues worldwide. It incorporates a vast amount of new data regarding the scientific understanding and clinical management of this disease.

Besides Dr. Lehmann’s software article, I found the articles on new drugs, insulins, meters, exercise, and screening to be the most interesting, reflecting, of course, my personal interests.

Aside from the needs of students, this is a reference work, best reviewed in a library. One reason you may not wish to buy it yourself is the price: $510. And that is not a typo. ISBN 0471486558.

For more information see http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/itdm/.