Ray Rayburn has created a great book. It's going to be most useful for the serious beginner, since a lot of this knowledge is known to professionals, but nevertheless pros will appreciate the deeper understanding of the hows and whys of mics. The book covers the last century of mic developments, covering issues like placing and using miss, and using them for various tasks. It's suitable as the "one" book that anyone serious needs to have. There are many graphs and mathematics for anyone who wants a more scientific or precision understanding. There are some irritating aspects to the book, e.g., the figures sometimes are a few pages away from the corresponding text, or don't match the text exactly, but that does not get in the way of it being useful.