I have wanted to buy a copy of this book ever since it was recommended by my jazz improvisation teacher, back in my university days, which was many years ago. It was called the “Real Book” as a tongue-in-cheek answer to all the Jazz “Fake Books” that had been circulating, basically in the same format, but with different songs. At that time, the huge price deterred me and most of the other students from buying it, so we just relied on some xeroxed copies given to us for study by the teacher. Even without having the benefit of being able to try out more of the pieces in the book, it did open up the possibilities for us to understand improvisation and encouraged us to really learn the advanced chords. As I remember, the book back then was close to $100, and I was surprised to see it now for less than half that price, a new and un-used book! It arrived in perfect shape this morning, and I am looking forward to trying out some of the tunes, re-learning some of the more advanced chords. This book is written in very easy-to-read hand-written musical notes, adding to its charm. Black Orpheus, by the way, is listed as “Black Orpheus”, instead of its alternate name of “Manha di Carnavale”, as it appears in some other books. The book is published now by Hal Leonard, which was probably why the book has lowered in price, as it is mass-produced now, but it has not been altered from its original content or form. They do state that the errors have been corrected. I don’t know what those errors are, or if there are any other errors in this edition, but it looks good to me! The plastic comb format makes it really easy to read from any music stand. It stays open, no matter what. I’m happy that Hal Leonard did not “re-work” the original format. I have seen that there are more volumes to this book, which I have never seen in person, but if you click the section on the page “Real Book Songfinder”, it cross-references any song and locates it within one or more of the volumes. So if you are looking for one or more particular songs, do use that link on this page, and you might decide to get one of the other volumes as well.At 462 pages of sheer music, I think this Real Book is a great value!