For a start, I have to admit I am no particle physicist. I have attended a course on experimental particle physics in my time as an undergrad, and later half a course on theoretical particle physics.
The last time I had to deal with particle physics was some five years ago. This should change with my PhD exam, however. One of the examiners was a particle physicist and so I had to gain some knowledge in this matter, and quickly. A colleague of mine suggested I had a go with this excellent book.
"The Ideas of Particle Physics" familiarises a general physicist with the basic concepts of particles and interactions in ten parts. Each part comprises topical chapters of about four pages each. Among these chapters we find historical overviews, experimental results, theoretical foundations, and (then) existing problems and their solutions.
The authors put a strong emphasis on easily accessible texts. It is possible to read a few chapters before going to bed or on the train. You do not need pen and paper to have a chance to follow the book, you learn as you read and think. Accessibility is somehow linked to the near absence of formulae. You will not find Feynman rules in here, though Feynman graphs are used all the time. As a result, students will not be able to solve homework problems, but this is not what this book aims for. Instead, I got a concise overview and the feeling to have understood the basic ideas behind particle physics for the first time. Though I am a theoretical physicist, I never missed maths at all.
As it turned out, my examiners in my PhD exam actually got the impression that particle physics is my secret love (it is not) because of all the things I knew. I dare say, what I knew I learned from this wonderful book, and I highly recommend it to anyone not working the the area of particle physics, but who is forced to deal with it (or perhaps just plain interested).
