Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been making pizza for about 20 years, with pretty good success (at least, that's what my family and guests have told me). Recently, I bought Ken Forkish's "The Elements of Pizza" in the hopes of taking my pizza skills to a new level. Shortly after, I bumped into "The Pizza Bible," and bought that too. I learned a lot from both this and the Forkish book, but this one is my hands-down favorite of the two. Gemignani tells you in the clearest fashion, WHY he does things the way he does them. That gives you a deeper understanding of what you are doing, helps you figure out precisely what he's telling you to do, and gives you the confidence to experiment with shortcuts or other modifications. This stands in sharp contrast to Forkish, who often tells you what to do but not why, and when the instructions are less than transparent (e.g., Forkish's description of how to ball the dough), it's impossible to figure out what he means. Another major contrast between Gemignani's book and Forkish's book is that Gemignani is very efficient - he doesn't repeat himself much. He gives you lots of details in the "Master Class" section of the book, and subsequently he gives briefer instructions, on the assumption that you learned something from executing the class. In contrast, Forkish is highly redundant, repeating many of the instructions in every recipe. You could probably distill Forkish's book into one that is half as long. Gemignani provides a comprehensive tour of many different pizza styles, with a couple of recipes for each style. So, why do I say, don't make this your first book? The problem here is that Gemignani is a craftsman, and he wants every reader to be a craftsman. (His motto is, "Respect the Craft.") That means pizza doughs that take 3-5 days to concoct, and having not one pizza stone, but two, and having both a large and small-volume digital scale. And it's true, all this craftsmanship does make for a better pizza. But even without a single digital scale, and with only one stone, and using a recipe with a dough rise-time of only a couple of hours, you can still make a pizza that will be competitive with most national chain high-quality pizzerias, and will simply whip the pants off a low-quality chain like Pizza Hut. Yes, your pizzas may sometimes be shaped a like Australia (or worse, Africa), and in a side-by-side taste test your 2-hour dough won't be as good as a 3-day dough, but they will still be great. Also, there are a lot of great pizza topping possibilities that involve only a few ingredients, yet you might not think of yourself. A beginner will benefit from a book that provides a lot of suggestions (like red onion, potato, pancetta, and fontina!). The recipes here - while terrific - are extremely esoteric, complex, and often reference obscure artisan brands, which will be either tough to obtain, or it will be impossible to know what would be an appropriate substitute. Start with a book like Evan Kleiman's "Angeli Caffe Pizza Pasta Panini" (out of print, but still available, last time I checked), which gives you a simple dough and a lot of recipes. Fall in love with making your own pizza, then graduate to this book.