As a core course of the civil engineering specialty, the fundamentals of structure design course plays an important role in the curriculum system. The course helps the students to build the basic concepts of structure design, and to master the design method of fundamental structure components. The textbook is important to the teaching and learning, and even critical to the teaching effectiveness. On the basis of teaching practice, the current situations of the course are discussed and some advice are proposed for the edition of high quality textbook. The discussion is also helpful to provide reference for the textbook construction of civil engineering specialty.