The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The bible., 29 May 2001
This book is the bible of any algebraic geometer. It emphasizes the powerful sheaf-theoretic view of algebraic geometry (which is the point of view that scores most big hits when proving conjectures). It's probably a good idea to do some commutative algebra before embarking on a detailed study of the book, but essentially it can be read with just, say, a copy of Bourbaki's comprehensive tome to hand.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The bible., 29 May 2001
This book is the bible of any algebraic geometer. It emphasizes the powerful sheaf-theoretic view of algebraic geometry (which is the point of view that scores most big hits when proving conjectures). It's probably a good idea to do some commutative algebra before embarking on a detailed study of the book, but essentially it can be read with just, say, a copy of Bourbaki's comprehensive tome to hand.

This is a very detailed book, but it is not for the novice, 29 Jan 2001
This book goes through a significant amount of the basic theory relating to the Riemann zeta function. However, it assumes a good understanding of complex and real analysis to undergraduate level. The book itself is not easy to read and a lot of the proofs are given with little explaination.

If you want to study the Riemann zeta function then a better book to give a sound foundation is "the theory of the Riemann zeta function" by Titchmarsh.

The book touches on the following: 1. Standard results such as product representation and other standard equalities. 3. The Poisson summation formula and the functional equation. 3. The Hadamard Product Formula. 4. The zeros, prime number theorem and Riemann Hypothesis. 5. Approximate functional equation.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The bible., 29 May 2001
This book is the bible of any algebraic geometer. It emphasizes the powerful sheaf-theoretic view of algebraic geometry (which is the point of view that scores most big hits when proving conjectures). It's probably a good idea to do some commutative algebra before embarking on a detailed study of the book, but essentially it can be read with just, say, a copy of Bourbaki's comprehensive tome to hand.

This is a very detailed book, but it is not for the novice, 29 Jan 2001
This book goes through a significant amount of the basic theory relating to the Riemann zeta function. However, it assumes a good understanding of complex and real analysis to undergraduate level. The book itself is not easy to read and a lot of the proofs are given with little explaination.

If you want to study the Riemann zeta function then a better book to give a sound foundation is "the theory of the Riemann zeta function" by Titchmarsh.

The book touches on the following: 1. Standard results such as product representation and other standard equalities. 3. The Poisson summation formula and the functional equation. 3. The Hadamard Product Formula. 4. The zeros, prime number theorem and Riemann Hypothesis. 5. Approximate functional equation.

Abstract Art, 13 Jan 2006
Geometric algebra is like abstract, mathematical art.
I can read it just because it is beautiful. Sometimes it can be useful, too.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The bible., 29 May 2001
This book is the bible of any algebraic geometer. It emphasizes the powerful sheaf-theoretic view of algebraic geometry (which is the point of view that scores most big hits when proving conjectures). It's probably a good idea to do some commutative algebra before embarking on a detailed study of the book, but essentially it can be read with just, say, a copy of Bourbaki's comprehensive tome to hand.

This is a very detailed book, but it is not for the novice, 29 Jan 2001
This book goes through a significant amount of the basic theory relating to the Riemann zeta function. However, it assumes a good understanding of complex and real analysis to undergraduate level. The book itself is not easy to read and a lot of the proofs are given with little explaination.

If you want to study the Riemann zeta function then a better book to give a sound foundation is "the theory of the Riemann zeta function" by Titchmarsh.

The book touches on the following: 1. Standard results such as product representation and other standard equalities. 3. The Poisson summation formula and the functional equation. 3. The Hadamard Product Formula. 4. The zeros, prime number theorem and Riemann Hypothesis. 5. Approximate functional equation.

Abstract Art, 13 Jan 2006
Geometric algebra is like abstract, mathematical art.
I can read it just because it is beautiful. Sometimes it can be useful, too.

Interesting and Accessible at Many Levels, 03 Aug 1998
Lawvere and Schanuel have created a book at once accessible and stimulating at a great many levels. It discusses the concepts of Category Theory in a simulated "classroom" setting, addressing common questions of students at crucial points in the book. It also wanders in a care-free manner through an amazing number of topics. The book is interesting to non-mathematicians at a philosophical level, and to (beginning) mathematicians as an introduction to an exciting new area of mathematics. The authors have a great attitude, and offer great starting-points for investigation.

I read it as a first year pure math undergraduate, and though it was at times at too low a level (the 'tests,' for instance, are very easy reviews of basic ideas), it never became boring. For me, it read 'like a novel' (and a page-turner, at that). My only gripe is the lack of an annotated "further reading" section, which would have rounded out the book.

The good and teh bad, 10 Nov 2008
There is a lot of good information here, where the maths is standard.
Unfortunately the book is very sloppily written and badly edited.
Some ideas are well referenced, but others are not attributed, like the Odom construction from the equilateral triangle in a circle.
It contains lots of errors and the usual extrapolations that are not valid.
For example, the nautilus shell is said to be golden section without any proof (it has nothing to do with the GS) and the cover perpetuates that myth.
The Art section is very bad with the usual chosing of data and stretching it to fit the hypothesis. Better to read Mario Levi's book to see why this is rubbish.
There are lots of lists of what people say on the internet with no critical views as if they are trying to sell the book because of this popular view. This perpetuation of mis-information clouds one's ability to believe the rest of the book.
It's very sad that what is mostly a good collection is so shoddily presented and mixed up with great deal of wrong information.


More geometry, less algebra., 13 Aug 1997
This book is a throwback to the time when algebraic geometry was a branch of geometry rather than category theory. As wonderful as the books by Mumford and Hartshorne are, they are rather long on abstract nonsense and short on geometry. This book is a refreshing exception to the 'modern' trend. Actually, there is a renaissance in applications of algebraic geometry to surprizing fields such as encryption and string field theory, and these are more in the spirit of this book than those of the Grothendieck school. Except for the obscenely high price and occasional typos, I highly recommend this book, especially to geometrically inclined mathematicians who don't really care about the category of schemes over an arbitrary field.

The bible., 29 May 2001
This book is the bible of any algebraic geometer. It emphasizes the powerful sheaf-theoretic view of algebraic geometry (which is the point of view that scores most big hits when proving conjectures). It's probably a good idea to do some commutative algebra before embarking on a detailed study of the book, but essentially it can be read with just, say, a copy of Bourbaki's comprehensive tome to hand.

This is a very detailed book, but it is not for the novice, 29 Jan 2001
This book goes through a significant amount of the basic theory relating to the Riemann zeta function. However, it assumes a good understanding of complex and real analysis to undergraduate level. The book itself is not easy to read and a lot of the proofs are given with little explaination.

If you want to study the Riemann zeta function then a better book to give a sound foundation is "the theory of the Riemann zeta function" by Titchmarsh.

The book touches on the following: 1. Standard results such as product representation and other standard equalities. 3. The Poisson summation formula and the functional equation. 3. The Hadamard Product Formula. 4. The zeros, prime number theorem and Riemann Hypothesis. 5. Approximate functional equation.

Abstract Art, 13 Jan 2006
Geometric algebra is like abstract, mathematical art.
I can read it just because it is beautiful. Sometimes it can be useful, too.

Interesting and Accessible at Many Levels, 03 Aug 1998
Lawvere and Schanuel have created a book at once accessible and stimulating at a great many levels. It discusses the concepts of Category Theory in a simulated "classroom" setting, addressing common questions of students at crucial points in the book. It also wanders in a care-free manner through an amazing number of topics. The book is interesting to non-mathematicians at a philosophical level, and to (beginning) mathematicians as an introduction to an exciting new area of mathematics. The authors have a great attitude, and offer great starting-points for investigation.

I read it as a first year pure math undergraduate, and though it was at times at too low a level (the 'tests,' for instance, are very easy reviews of basic ideas), it never became boring. For me, it read 'like a novel' (and a page-turner, at that). My only gripe is the lack of an annotated "further reading" section, which would have rounded out the book.

A TEXTBOOK, in the best sense of the word, 23 May 2008
Explains not only what the notions are, but also why were they singled out for study. Reading this book, we clearly see: 1. the complexity of the things we would like to understand, 2. the simplifications needed to get anywhere in our study, 3. technical theorems needed to operate with the notions we have defined. This is a great book because it shows how mathematics is done (not by Hilbert or Noether, but by the person reading the book). This is useful because we don't study mathematics just to look at the great results proved by others; we study it to see what is left unclear and how we could perhaps make improvements to our understanding of things.

Excellent on its own or next to Hartshorne, 30 Sep 2001
First off, Eisenbud means for his book on commutative algebra to indicate many of the geometric notions that have helped shape the subject. He does this admirably--I found that in the first few chapters you can really learn some algebraic geometry. He also means for the course to be sufficient for reading through Robin Hartshorne's Algebraic Geometry. In fact, he has picked out the commutative algebra results Hartshorne uses (without proof) and made sure to give complete proofs of them in his book.

This being said, Eisenbud's book is also good for just plain learning some commutative algebra. His exposition flows very well and is extremely clear. He gives quite a few examples in text, and more are scattered in the exercises. Most of the exercises are not too difficult, but he has a few trickier ones (they are usually marked and include hints in the back). The book is huge, and has a huge breadth of scope (localisation, completions, homological methods, differentials, etc. are all in there). So, it also makes a useful reference. Plus, Eisenbud's point of view (a geometric one) allows the reader with a passing acquaintance with algebraic geometry to gain some insight into the constructions and methods of commutative algebra.