Dear Dr. Polchinski
Your book is very, very confusing. I do not understand it at all. I look forward to a day that may come, where I might refer back to it, finally understanding everything you are saying. That day is not now. That day is not anytime soon.
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Even worse he claims in the preface that the purpose of the book is to make the subject more clear and accessible to new comers unlike the other books. It makes me feel more miserable.
Though notes by George Siopsis seems to be a good companion:
http://aesop.phys.utk.edu/strings/
BTW, why your blog gets more spam comments than mine? Why is your blog more important? I am jealous.
If you want to feel better check out Serge Lang's Algebra -- my favorite part is how he refers you to other textbooks he's written for clarification.
But yeah, you really ought to turn on comment verification... although I bet that Julia Elvarado is a total hottie.
Dear David,
Your message somehow came up on my first page of google hits, so I guess I should answer. Indeed, when I started my book, I intended that a student would pick it up, stay up all night reading it, and in the morning know string theory. Needless to say I failed in spite of many rewrites. Even now if I started over I don't think I could do much better, I would not want to be less systematic. Barton Zwiebach wrote a book that comes closer, but obviously there are tradeoffs, you can't do everything in one book. Happily my book does seem to be useful.
Best,
Joe Polchinski
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