mathematics

This book was a required text for the Vector Calculus course. The style and content are fine in the first chapters (Ch. 12) until I needed an alternative viewpoint. I was amazed how straightforward was the material which I couldn't understand from Stewart's book. The author rambles from one point to another, intersperses easy topic with advanced instead of building on what has already been explained. Moreover, in many cases he just gives a senseless definition and only after several pages (sometimes chapters) illustrates the essence of the principle and its application to the real world. Despite the obvious drawbacks, the book has two pluses: accurate (solvable) exercises and good intros to each chapter. Nevertheless, it is still hard to get used to applying the topics covered after a single reading, so the former positive moment doesn't help much. If you want an intuitive approach to calculus, get Thomas/Finney's book Calculus and Analytic Geometry (I used 1990's edition).

Contrary to what some reviewers have written, I feel that Stewart's Calculus book is easily the best textbook I have encountered so far in college. In my opinion, the best indication of a textbook's worth is having to learn the material solely through the text, instead in addition to a lecturer; this book passed that test with flying colors.

Of course I had calculus lecturers, but every one of them was horrible. For Calc I (single variable), the professor spoke in a thick Russian accent; in Calc II (advanced integration/series, sequences), the professor was simply inadequate and didn't know how to explain anything; in Calc III (multivariable), the professor was a crazy Polish guy bent on teaching us calculus using his own weird linear algebra/advanced math methods (you'd think Berkeley might assign some better math professors...). In every case, I ended up shunning the lectures and learning everything straight from Stewart. Every chapter was teeming with great example problems, and wasn't saturated with unnecessary proofs (read the Principia or other advanced books if you're interested in that sort of thing). Perhaps the homework problems weren't always as challenging as other books, but I'd rather understand the problems than sit around staring an unsolvable puzzle for 3 hours.

Again I say, best college text I've had so far. I highly recommend it.

The book was exactly as described and arrived promptly. I would use A1 Books again.