In selecting the material and the presentation of this textbook I was aiming at the advanced undergraduate/first year graduate level, or so I was intending. Chapters 1-8 (with some possible omissions and additions, depending on the students' interests and the instructor's preferences) can serve as the core of a senior undergraduate course on Solid State Physics addressed to students in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Engineering. The book is designed to serve also as a textbook in, a first-year graduate course on the Physics of Solids. Some familiarity with Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics, and Statistical Physics is assumed; anyway, extensive outlines of these subjects are presented in Appendices A, B, and C, respectively.