The "bible" for serious hatha yoga practitioners, although you probably will never be able to achieve a large percentage of the postures illustrated. At least, I won't! It is still the authoritative source for performing each posture correctly. One of his later books, "Yoga, the Path to Holistic Health," has wonderful 360-degree views of the "classic" postures, but it's a huge hardback that is impossible to carry with you.

This book truly is the bible of modern yoga, and was purchased in preparation for a yoga teacher training class. The first part of the book discusses the philosophy behind yoga and introduces important terms. The rest of the book goes through many asanas to discuss breathing and proper techniques.

If you are taking yoga on as a serious study you must get this book!! It's like a yoga bible. The intro alone will set you on a path of a new and complete understanding of the philosophy of this age old practice. Then to boot - you have a complete pictorial compilation of all the postures with descriptions of each and the breathing techniques.

Don't worry about it being written by Iyengar himself if you intend on practicing other branches of yoga - this book was recommended to me by a well known and respected Vinyasa instructor, Marco Rojas. I work mostly in Ashtanga and Yin/Yan yoga. Seriously, this book will set you on your way regardless of how you ultimately choose to practice.

Light on Yoga is also light on interest. I ordered this book and The Yoga Bible. I am using the Yoga Bible and think it is very well put together and easy to use. Photography is also very good. Light on Yoga is just not put together in a user friendly manner.

I can't believe I've been practicing yoga all these years and haven't owned this book! This is my new bible; a treasure chest filled with every pose and the theory behind them. Every serious student or teacher should have this definitive book in their library.