[.ca] Essentials of Accounting for Governmental and ... (ISBN 0073130966)

Worst Text I ever had to read:
If it was possible to give this book a negetive star review I would. It has no organization, no structure, and makes no sense. It is by far the worst text I have ever had to read. Although the author is a professor, he must be a very bad one. He has no grasp on how students learn, and makes no attempt to link information together. He uses the same example throughout the entire text. As if in chapter 9, you rememeber what entry 14, is in chapter 3. A horrible book. It is easier to read the GASB statements than it is this book. DO NOT BUY IT!!

WARNING! Reading this book may cause extreme drowsiness.:
WARNING! This book may cause drowsiness. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery after reading this book. It's too bad the author has absolutely no literary skills whatsoever. I'm no great author myself but you'd think by the time they got to the fifth edition all the errors would be gone and they would have improved upon the existing text. I guess the editors must have let this one slip through without actually reading what they were going to be publishing. If you are unfortunate enough to have to buy this book then you will be dumber for having read it and may God have mercy on your soul.

Think twice before buying this text!:
Astoundingly bad text. To say that this book is dry is a complement. The fact is that any introduction text should paraphrase and explain the more complicated issues involved. The authors do not do this. They borrow from the GASB standards word for word in order to fill out space in the text. See what you think of the following excerpt: "Accordingly, a distinctive characteristic of governmental accounting resulting from the need to demonstrate compliance with laws governing the sources of revenues available to governmental units and laws governing the utilization of those revenues is the formal reporting of the legally approved budget compared with actual results for the General Fund and all special revenue funds that have a legally adopted annual budget." Real nice for an intro book!

Frustration:
This is a truly horrible book. It's written so poorly that the only way it can be used is as a look-up reference. If you don't have a really good instructor for Not-for-profit accounting, find one using a different book. You won't get much out of this. The 7th Edition is just as bad as the 6th.

Absolutely one of the WORST accounting textbooks:
This book is perhaps the most poorly thought out text I've ever had the displeasure to read... The authors write this book in high level language and do a very poor job of explaining just what it is that they are attempting to convey to the reader. I think that I would actually rather read GASB doctrine than attempt to decode this text. If you are reading this review and you are a professor, please do NOT choose this text for your course.