The Cannabible is outdated.
yes and no. more than outdated, it reports way to much on hoarder strains for seed buying, but it's a very useful overview on most of the essentials with decent coverage of the chem dawg > diesel & OG linneage and essentials like NL#5 (NL#6 is allegedly better), skunk #1, C99, jack herer, super silver haze, white widow & rhino, & AK47 etc.
some strains are classic even after 20+ years and many of the strains covered are still in production. it's a lot better resource than the last forum i was a member of where no one could pull anything resembling a smoke report beyond
"best shit ever", "man this shit's dank!" (yawn) or
"look at this pic!" out of their skunk lovin' ass.
i was thinking of getting the big book of buds, but i think someone told me it sucked. i like reading any strain report i can, especially for the high side of mids. cannabible isn't the ultimate resource for eternity on buds, but it's a better reference than anything i know short of having to read 20 pages of blog to get an actual report.
i'm bummed that i couldn't get any of my five tiny mekong hazes to pop in my cold 2011 winter room without a heating mat and humidity dome as it made the strain sound like the trippiest land race you can get. (JYD haze is supposed to be real too) i'll try again some time when i get around to connoisseur grade tinkering, but maybe my malawi gold will deliver the goods.
i really like that the author shows a preference for getting high. it makes the reporting more to my tastes too. if anything, the series is as essential as master jorge cervantes' grow guides to me.