When I was a first year GI fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, I quickly discovered that the world of gastroenterology was divided into 2 camps: people who relied on Yamada’s “Textbook of Gastroenterology” and those who leaned toward Sleisinger and Fordtran’s “Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease.” I distinctly recall one of my attending physicians impressing on me the gravity of the decision I would be making when selecting one over the other. Both are considered definitive textbooks of gastroenterology and hepatology, and both are exhaustive, 2-volume sets that cover, essentially, everything one could need to know as a practicing GI physician, yet these texts each have a distinctly different tone and tenor.