They say, “Never judge a book by its cover”. But I do. I pick it up, weigh it in my hands, examine it front and back; sometimes, I even smell it, searching for any hints that will help me divine its worth. From the exterior, Successful Scientific Writing by Janice R. Matthews and Robert W. Matthews exudes utility; it screams, “research”.’ The cover is green, unadorned, and clean-lined. The high-quality spiral binding allows it to lay comfortably open on a desk, a lab bench, anywhere. This is a book that wants to be written in, to have its text highlighted, to have its pages dog-eared, to be used as any other common tool like a screwdriver or a pipette. Even the coffee stains on the upper right corner of my copy look perfectly at home.