The 5th edition of the more than two decades well-known ophthalmology textbook by Yanoff and Duker has been published in 2018. The dimensions of the high-quality printed hardcover book already implicate that this book has the ambition to be a weighty contribution to literature in ophthalmology. Per the preface, the editors strive for good readability rather than for an encyclopedic book. While the hardcover due to its size is inconvenient to read, the editors’ ambition is achieved by the handy e-book version. Luckily, the hard-cover version includes a complimentary subscription to an enhanced digital version, which is accessible through the Inkling app. A classical e-book is also available for major e-book readers at a comparable price than the hardcover version.

The book is structured in 12 parts. Each part is dedicated to an overarching topic. These topics have been chosen elegantly, so that the 12 parts cover all contemporary areas of eye disease in a systematic fashion. The 12 parts also ease navigation through the large book. Each part includes—as appropriate—side-by-side information on the nature of the diseases, diagnostics, and therapy. Therefore, each part is an itself closed entity like a textbook on its own. This makes the book not only a valuable resource to look up detailed information but also a well readable and digestible learning resource.

The book is nicely illustrated. It includes a wealth of well-chosen handpicked photos as well as further graphical sketches These illustrations support the text and further enhance readability of the book. In the digital version, additional videos and other external online resources can be accessed.

From an international perspective, it has to be noted that the book is focused on clinical practice in the USA. For the most part, this does not play a relevant role. However, some aspects like drug names or dosing recommendations or certain surgical standards may differ in other regions of the world. The reader has to keep this in mind, but, in my view, this does not limit the overall value of this book as a strong resource for contemporary clinical ophthalmology.