Shigley’s book is the overall best machine design book. The explanations are clear and precise, and there is a good amount of practice problems. So, this is a good book for studying machine design topic by topic.

The book has fewer errors compared to many other books, so it can be recommended as one of the best textbooks available for machine design.

The book covers various topics including materials, load and stress analysis, deflection and stiffness, failure prevention, machine elements, and finite element analysis.

Norton is not going to be second to Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design book. But, some of the students find it difficult to read. Other than that reason, this should be the best machine design book.

The book is well organized and explanations are precise, clear, and direct. Read the few pages from the book and check whether the book is for you or not.

In my opinion, Robert Norton’s book is my fav machine design book.

The book covers a wide range of topics including materials properties & selection, load-deformation, deflection, static failures, fatigue failures, surface failures, finite element analysis, and some machine elements.

This is my second favorite book. The explanations are on point, so some may find it boring to read. But when it comes to problems, it clearly states, assumptions, steps, and comments.

The structure of the book is kind of similar to Khurami’s book.

This is one of the unpopular books among students. Wei Jiang’s book is black and white and there are no colorful images and highlighted texts. However, the book is great in good quality and the explanations are on point.

The best thing about Wei Jiang’s book is, it includes a step-by-step approach for practice problems. But the practice problems are limited, and if you’re going to use this book, keep another book for more practice problems.

Khurami’s machine design book is the easiest book to read compared to other books. And that’s why I name it the best book for beginners. Moreover, unlike many other books, this book covers most of the basics.

Even if it’s beginner-friendly and easier to understand, there are some problems with the book. And the biggest problem is some of the theories are not correct. 

Bhandari’s book is one of the popular machine design books. But the theoretical explanations are small. Even if there are many practice problems, it doesn’t have step by step guide on those problems. For that reason, I’m not recommending this book.

However, if you’re in a hurry this book may work for you.      

Machinery’s Handbook is a hundred years old machine design book, and it’s still a great book. The book has almost four thousand pages and includes the standard data.

Some people use this book as the only reference since it covers almost all the things they want.

Machine Elements in Mechanical Design is a good book in one way. Because it’s explanations are clear, short, and well organized. And there are many graphical illustrations, graphs, and charts that can help you to understand the concepts quickly.

This is a good book for someone, who wants to speed up the learning speed.

Standard Handbook of Machine Design is a classic black and white book with no colorful illustrations. It’s one of the best theory books. But, since there are newer alternatives, many people are not interested in this one.

Schaum’s Outline of Theory and Problems of Machine Design has shorter explanations and many practice problems. But you may find it difficult to do those problems, just using the theory in the book.

Moreover, the problems don’t have stated assumptions and clear steps.