What is the best economics textbook in your opinion? Why?
I've taken my standard business school econ classes and read their textbooks. And, in my own time, I've read Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State. To the extent the latter can be considered a textbook (I think it absolutely can), I would say I learned and retained much more from that book by myself, with no instruction, than from both of my university classes.
If I'm not mistaken, Rothbard designed the book to be useful either as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate economics courses, or as a holistic treatise designed for the intelligent layperson.
If you're interested in something a little more approachable, I've heard really good things about Robert Murphy's Lessons for the Young Economist
Lesson For the young economist is a good textbook for basic economics, maybe for high school econ... I would say Human Action is a good ''textbook"... or maybe Capitalism by George Reisman
My Blog: http://www.anarchico.net/
Production is 'anarchistic' - Ludwig von Mises
http://www.vforvoluntary.com/young-economist/
I'm reading Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt and it's pretty good so far.
david friedman's price theory
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Price_Theory/PThy_ToC.html
best undergrad price theory textbook evar. plus it is free.
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine - Elvis Presley
I assume you're not enquiring about Austrian textbooks(If you are, I'd still rate Rothbard's MES over Murphy's Lessons for the Young Economist, though it is rather deep).
With Neoclassical textbooks, I must admit I've grown to quite like Varian, and his Intermediate Micro textbook, though it is a little lacking mathematically, with myself often feeling that I should fill in the calculus in various steps to complete the derivation of what he's saying. He's a charming and often humorous writer though, even though I can see glaring errors with the theory he's espousing.
I haven't had the pleasure of reading David Friedman's Price Theory in full, though from what I've seen of it, I must admit it is quite polished.
"When the King is far the people are happy." Chinese proverb
For Alexander Zinoviev and the free market there is a shared delight:
"Where there are problems there is life."