4 ms·

I can't recommend this book more. I read through about half of it before I took my first real course on linear algebra. The result? I got literally 100% in that

by nilkn 12y ago

I can't recommend this book more. I read through about half of it before I took my first real course on linear algebra. The result? I got literally 100% in that class -- I didn't miss a single point on anything the entire semester. The teacher was flabbergasted, but I had my secret weapon -- Axler. The rest of the class was relying on the course textbook, some awful fat thing that I'm pretty sure nobody could ever really learn from. Axler's book made the concepts so crystal clear to me that it felt as if I'd known them since birth. I can't guarantee that everyone is going to have the same experience, but yeah, it's a good book.

eli_gottlieb 12y ago
Wow, really? I mean, I got an A- in linear algebra with some normal old textbook I don't even remember, and certainly learned it all in terms of linear transformations over vector spaces... but then again, I didn't have it as a doubled class with differential equations in the first place. Is Axler that good?
- nilkn 12y ago
  It was partially a fluke I'm sure. I'm notoriously sloppy with arithmetic and no book could save me from that. It's not necessarily that Axler is that good. It's that it's just solidly good all throughout. It has the right focus. The goal of the book was very clearly to explain linear algebra, not to make money or get contract deals with college bookstores. And the proofs are very clearly written. I'm sure there are other books out there which are just as good as Axler. But compared to the more popular linear algebra textbooks, at least at the time, it seemed like it was in a class of its own.
nextos 12y ago
Any analysis recommendations? I have Hubbard & Hubbard in mind.
- nilkn 12y ago
  I don't have any particularly noteworthy recommendations for ordinary analysis or real analysis, but for complex analysis I did find that Needham's Visual Complex Analysis was just as revolutionary for me as Linear Algebra Done Right (if not more so).

by nilkn 12y ago

eli_gottlieb 12y ago

Wow, really? I mean, I got an A- in linear algebra with some normal old textbook I don't even remember, and certainly learned it all in terms of linear transformations over vector spaces... but then again, I didn't have it as a doubled class with differential equations in the first place. Is Axler that good?

nilkn 12y ago
It was partially a fluke I'm sure. I'm notoriously sloppy with arithmetic and no book could save me from that. It's not necessarily that Axler is that good. It's that it's just solidly good all throughout. It has the right focus. The goal of the book was very clearly to explain linear algebra, not to make money or get contract deals with college bookstores. And the proofs are very clearly written. I'm sure there are other books out there which are just as good as Axler. But compared to the more popular linear algebra textbooks, at least at the time, it seemed like it was in a class of its own.

nextos 12y ago

Any analysis recommendations? I have Hubbard & Hubbard in mind.

nilkn 12y ago
I don't have any particularly noteworthy recommendations for ordinary analysis or real analysis, but for complex analysis I did find that Needham's Visual Complex Analysis was just as revolutionary for me as Linear Algebra Done Right (if not more so).