It’s better to read books than blogs/forums/websites because you will get the whole picture instead of only fragments of it. Of course sometimes there are some good posts that capture the whole core of training in fewer than 1000 words. However, even then, there are a few problems with that:

• First, it is not easy to check the level of trustworthiness of the posts
• Second, that one good post is just one of a few dozens posts you have read that day about training—there is no way you can fully appreciate everything in that post.

A whole book and all of its teaching can always be summarized in one paragraph, but there is a huge difference between actually reading the book from cover to cover and reading just the summary. Just think about this: “Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home” (IMDB). Is it the same as watching the whole movie (Wizard of Oz)? Same thing with reading a book on training instead of reading a post on training.

So, you should read a book on training. The question is: how to determine which book deserves your time and money?

• Look at reviews:
  • Amazon is the best source to look up reviews on books.
  • Goodreads also provide good reviews
  • Just go to Google product search and you can see reviews from both sources
  • Go to websites like forum.bodybuilding.com to look for reviews of the book.
  • Just Google for the reviews
• Look at the quality of the reviews:
  • Are there a lot of people who find these reviews useful? You can easily check that out with Amazon or by looking at the comments people made.
  • Who are the reviewers (i.e. do they know what they are talking about)?
  • Check to see if the reviewers are trying to promote the book for some selfish motives.
• Look at the level of popularity of the book
  • How many people on forums (or on the Internet in general) talk about the book. Again, forums like that of bodybuilding.com are good places to check out first.
  • The position of the book on Amazon.com is also a good indication, as are the number of reviews and the number of people who find these reviews useful.
• Look at the result of the program advocated by the book
  • Talk to people who have done the program. In most cases they will not have any incentive to lie to you.
  • Forums are a good place to find these people.
• Have a sneak peek of the book
  • Try to see if you can read part of the book using Google Book Reader.
  • In many cases, the reviews give you a good sense of how the book will be like.
  • A popular book should be the topic of many discussions on forums. Conducting some quick search on these forums should give you a post summarize the program of the book

It should not take too long to do all of that. Just sit down one evening and concentrate on doing just that. Remember: a little research now will always save you so much time later. Once you have found a good book, BUY THE BOOK! You don’t know NOTHING just based on that research. The purpose of the research is to prove whether the program is good, not so that you don’t need to read the book anymore.

Also, you don’t have to follow all the steps above. Just research until you are fully convinced that a book is good/bad.

One last note:

There is no “secret” principle to getting big. That’s just a marketing effort. There are not a million ways to get big either. That’s just how the bodybuilding industry makes money. There are only a few simple principles that you HAVE to follow.

Remember: it’s not about the idea; it’s all about the execution. Don’t get fooled by those “fancy” new machines and programs. They are all BS! A good book will show you why these same old principles that you may have heard a dozen times will help you gain massive muscle and get super strong.

For me personally, I read Starting Strength to get the basics of training down, then Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle to learn the basics of nutrition, then Beyond Brawn and its Weight-Training Technique Handbook to learn how to gain muscle. These are ALL you will need in order to get big. Nothing you read from anywhere else, nothing anyone says to you will ever be new after that. Then, all you need to do is EXECUTE.