See my answer here for the rationale behind this policy
Note that this will require some community members to commit to curating the resource recommendations by adding the banner, flagging+commenting on bad answers, etc. This can't go through unless we get enough people who are willing to patrol for book questions and spruce them up to fit policy. If you wish to help, just say so in a comment below this answer.
I am using the word "resource" instead of "book" here, as this policy can apply to requests for websites as well. Note that reference requests are different, these usually have one or two answers.
##What is a resource recommendation question?
A resource recommendation question is one that asks for a resource (which can be a book, website, or other resource) to learn a topic from.
This is not the same as a reference-request, which asks for a specific paper in which a derivation or concept is explained.
##What sort of resource recommendation questions are allowed here?
Resource recommendations must ask for descriptive answers. It's not enough to ask for a list of books that cover topic X — a simple Amazon search can provide that.
Instead, you should ask for recommendations, which specify:
- What the book covers
- How it covers it — is it rigorous? Intuitive? How is the writer's style?
- What are the prerequisites?
and similar questions.
Actually, this becomes more of a constraint on answers to resource recommendation questions, which brings us to the next point:
##How should I answer a resource recommendation question?
If you wish to answer a resource recommendation question, the answer should be substantive, and give as much information about the book as possible. Try to explain the style of the author, as well as listing the topics it covers well and the topics which it isn't so thorough with. Try to list the prerequisites too.
Here are some examples that show what good answers to resource recommendation questions should look like:
- Getting started general relativity
- Quantum Field Theory from a mathematical point of view
- Dark matter references
##As a community member, how should I treat resource recommendations?
If you see a rather narrow resource recommendation, see if you can convert it into a question about the concept the OP really wants to know, rather than a request for resources that explain the concept. Such questions are much more useful to the OP and the site in general, because the explanation is on-site and the reader need not go elsewhere to learn. So, if a resource recommendation looks directly answerable with a reasonable-length answer, then convert it to such a question.
Otherwise, aside from grammar/formatting fixes, edit the following banner into the top of our question:
> Before answering, please see [**our policy**](http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/a/4698) on resource recommendation questions. Please try to give substantial answers that detail the **style, content, and prerequisites** of the book or paper (or other resource). Explain what the resource is like as much as you can; that way the reader can decide which one is most suited for them rather than blindly relying on the suggestions of others. Answers which just suggest a book or paper will be deleted. > And please, note that any answers to this are **community-owned**, which means that they are subject to heavy editing, especially to make them comply with the book policy, to avoid deletion. If the question specifically specifies the content level or style required, please also add that to the banner.
> This question specifically asks for,... And finally, if you see answers which are just suggestions of a book or paper without explanation, flag them so they can be deleted.
