A choice for a Heat and Mass Transfer Reference TextBook

[Soumalya]

Which of the two books would you pick as an undergraduate engineering student if you were to study the subject of Heat and Mass Transfer entirely on your own?

1. Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals and Applications by Cengel & Ghajar

2. Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer by Incropera,Dewitt,Bergman & Lavine

 

[RooksAndBooks]

According to Amazon, choice two is better. Choice one has an average rating of less than three stars. It costs $233.05 (hardcover). However, choice two has an average rating of four stars. It's $187.79 (hardcover). I'd pick choice two since it seems better and is cheaper.

 

[bigfooted]

A second hand paperback would be my choice as a student.
Cengel you can get for $38
Incropera you can get for $20

On amazon, there are a number of entries for the book of Cengel, and although the mean rating does say something, I would always check why somebody gives a book a low rating. A 3-star rating for Cengel complained for instance that the pages in the paperback version are not bound very tightly. This is the reason that I prefer a second hand hardcover over a new paperback, even if it means buying a previous edition. But this is not really a complaint about the actual content. Another reviewer gave 4 stars and complained that there were many typos.
For Incropera people complain that the solution manual can only be found online on the Wiley website, and that the exercises are very different from the examples. For self-study, this would be important to know.