For a variety of reasons I’m taking stock of the various books I’ve purchased, appropriated from the group stores, or borrowed from the University’s library. Most serve as long-term references, though the occasional book is for searching for research project inspiration.
My list:
Arpe – Industrial Organic Chemistry
Barton and Ollis – Comprehensive Organic Chemistry Vol 2: Nitrogen Compounds (1979)
Carey and Sundberg – Advanced Organic Chemistry A and B
Chan and White – Fmoc Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis – (Reviewed)
Collins and Ferrier – Monosaccharides: Their Chemistry and Their Roles in Natural Products
Dermer and Ham – Ethylenimine and other aziridines
Dodd – The ACS Style Guide
Feibelman – A PhD Is Not Enough! (Loaned out)
Fieser – Reagents for Organic Synthesis (vol 1)
Greene and Wuts – Protective Groups in Organic Chemistry
Hammesfahr and Stong – Creative grass blowing
Hudlicky – Oxidations in Organic Chemistry
Hudlicky and Reed – The Way of Synthesis
Kern and Di – Drug-like Properties: Concepts, Structure Design and Methods
Kuchner – Marketing for Scientists – (Reviewed)
Larock – Comprehensive Organic Transformations
Leonard – Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry – (Reviewed)
Levy and Fugedi – The Organic Chemistry of Sugars
Li – Modern Organic Synthesis in the Laboratory – (Reviewed)
Lodish – Molecular Cell Biology
March – Advanced Organic Chemistry
Narain – Chemistry of Bioconjugates
Nelson – Navigating the Path to Industry – (Reviewed)
Newman – Steric Effects in Organic Chemistry
Paquette – Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (Vol 1) [1]
Pennington and Dunn – Peptide Synthesis Protocols – (Reviewed)
Seyden-Penne – Reductions by the Alumino- and Borohydrides in Organic Synthesis
Slonczewski and Foster – Microbiology: An Evolving Science
Stoddart – Stereochemistry of Carbohydrates
Tufte – The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Weinstein and Wagman – Antibiotics: Isolation, separation and purification
My work is a blend of chemistry and biology techniques, so it’s interesting to see that the reference books lean heavily towards chemistry. This may be in part due to how standardized the molecular biology techniques are, and wealth of online protocols.
[1] This is online now. I just like flipping through the hard copy.
Chemtips 
The picture of Fieser and Fieser reminded me that I read it cover to cover my first year of graduate school. What a tremendous amount of chemistry. It was old then (1978) but the practical information it held was invaluable. Thanks for the reminder.
Two very good resources:
Silverstein, Kiemle & Webster – Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds
Kürti – Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis
Good call, Brad. Both of those are in the lab, but others have laid claim to them.
My library:
Clayden/Greeves/Warren – Organic Chemistry (2nd edition)
Cotton – Chemical Applications of Group Theory
Fleming – Molecular Orbitals and Organic Chemical Reactions
Williams and Fleming – Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry
Hudlicky/Red – The Way of Synthesis
Kurti/Czako – Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis
Li – Name Reactions
Smith/March – Advanced Organic Chemistry (5th ed)
Nicolaou/Sorensen – Classics in Total Synthesis
Pauling – The Nature of the Chemical Bond
These are the ones I thought most important to bring with me/buy when moving to a new country. The non-organic ones are the ones which I felt were greatest for their respective topics during my undergrad.
It’s always good to see recommendations from others. Will use it for reference in the future. Thanks for sharing.