With the ever-increasing sophistication of the Internet, and the wealth of information that can now be mined through this source, it may be thought that the age of the book has finished, and hence there is no further need for reviews of newly published books. There is much to be said, nonetheless, for the greater facility of acquiring information from the pages of a book compared to the computer screen. In this review, therefore, I discuss the advantages of obtaining information from the printed page when presented in such splendid form as shown by new books devoted, on the one hand, to the clinical anatomy of the coronary arteries, and on the other hand, to paediatric congenital cardiac surgery. At the same time, I also attempt to provide some insights into the reasons why the authors and editors produced these excellent volumes, which deserve to be on the bookshelves of all those concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of children with congenitally malformed hearts.