Comments on CM books

Comments on Continuum Mechanics Books PhL 1.15.12 I am thinking of starting up on this subject and am perusing my "holdings". I have not hard copy books at all on this subject (I don't think). This is a classical subject I never studied. Backus. This seems to be written by a geologist who wants to be a math person. The entire first half or more is definition, lemma, theorem stuff on math topics like polyads. Only after you wade through all this stuff would you get to Part II which is what I want. I would prefer a different kind of book right now since I am a beginner. Barber 2002. This looks much more up my alley. It opens with stress and strain which is what I want. But there is no chapter on waves. That seems odd to me. Otherwise it seems to have all the major stuff, bending of beams, cracks, and so on. Eringen has 3 "contributers" with different sections and seems much too advanced for the beginner. Lai 1993 has 3 authors. It opens with tensors and curvilinear coordinates, which I think I like. Then comes strain and then stress. Then "the elastic solid" and yes, here are wave discussions. Eventually we get off into viscous fluids, wow, a freebie. This one is the best book so far in my collection. The book is Lai, Ruben and Krempl. I see there is a 4th edition (my copy is 3rd). I just brought in the 4th Ed from http://search.4shared.com/postDownload/2KIBRu6e/introduction_to_continuum_mech.html It has the same structure, so I guess I would go with this later edition if I get launched. Date is 2009. Amazon has the book for $60 free shipping and there are reviews. But not many reviews, and one is a major pan, lots of typos, etc, in 3rd Ed. But this is 4th Ed some 18 years later, so I would assume things are cleaned up. I will give Lai 4th Edition a go. I could find no online errata at the Lai site. I think this book can be bought for $12 including shipping from a used place, but in "new" condition. I might do that at some point, but right now let's use the PDF and see what we see.