Post #379363
2026-01-25 17:19 UTC
Replies (27)
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@pussreboots@sfba.social 2026-01-25 20:26
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz True.
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@cwg1231@defcon.social 2026-01-26 04:46
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz shout out discrete structures by @MotivicKyle@mathstodon.xyz and David Perkinson
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@WooShell@chaosfurs.social 2026-01-26 08:16
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I'm not even asking why text books go to 300$, no matter the design..
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@moriel@chaosfem.tw 2026-01-26 16:54
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Don't forget: Everyone ignores the title and just calls it a cutesy nickname based on the author's name, like "Baby Rudin", means this book is probably already on your shelf.
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@sudo200@layer8.space 2026-01-27 06:38
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz This applies to electronics textbooks as well
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@c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io 2026-01-27 12:11
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Lay’s Linear Algebra.
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@laguiri@neopaquita.es 2026-01-27 12:17
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz there's a book called Gimson's pronunciation of English, first edition 1936, which is the only phonetics book you'll ever need. Revisions have a different name in small print. It's still the Gimsons.
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@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems 2026-01-27 12:32
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz one of the best textbooks I ever read was Calculus Made Easy It is 116 years old It still slaps
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@StarkRG@myside-yourside.net 2026-01-27 12:37
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz This also applies to other fields of study.
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@passenger@kolektiva.social 2026-01-27 12:42
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz My old Young & Freedman from undergraduate is holding up one end of my wife's electronic piano and Boas & Stroud is holding up the other end.
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@drchaos@sauropods.win 2026-01-27 12:53
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Counterexample: John Kruschke's book "Doing Bayesian Data Analysis" it has cutesy puppies on the cover. Good book, used it a lot.
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@DrSaucy@sfba.social 2026-01-27 12:53
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz What really chaps my ass is that math & science books used to be $300+ due to manual typesetting of complex equations. The digital age replaced that need, but the prices never came down.
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@donlamb_1@mastodon.online 2026-01-27 14:12
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz my database teacher just handed out copies of her "book" chapter by chapter. Best ever.
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@rossquantum@mathstodon.xyz 2026-01-27 14:27
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Addendum : if the title is "Introduction to ..." this book is not suitable for anyone who has not already the studied the subject at the graduate level for several years.
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@independentpen@mas.to 2026-01-27 15:17
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I like how the last one is basically a zine
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@enfa@mefi.social 2026-01-27 15:46
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I think this might be the OG #tumblr post, can't find 'cauchys-special-boy' anywhere, might have changed blog name. https://www.tumblr.com/ceausescue/740165166339063808/if-theres-one-thing-ive-learned-from-my-math
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@amy@cathode.church 2026-01-27 16:02
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz the 300 euro book will also have no solutions, just final answers to selected exercises. there is a solutions manual (with solutions to selected exercises) but you can only buy it if you are a teacher. The answer numbers also change by edition to make sure it is an absolute pain to use if you buy the book and the solutions second hand of different editions
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@aburka@hachyderm.io 2026-01-27 16:26
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I think this applies to computer science textbooks too, except that if it has some unhinged shit like dragons or dinosaurs on the cover then it's probably also good
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@Moosader@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-01-27 16:43
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz maybe also true for my programming classes. 😅
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@draNgNon@hachyderm.io 2026-01-27 17:07
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz can confirm just by looking at the textbooks on my shelf
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@tknarr@mstdn.social 2026-01-27 20:11
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Same in software development, cf. "Knuth", "Stevens", "K&R", "Stroustrup".
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@chinmay@social.treehouse.systems 2026-01-27 23:31
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz (not niche or strictly maths) David Mount's lecture notes on Computational Geometry
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@CliftonR@wandering.shop 2026-01-28 05:55
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I still have my Mathematical Logic and Set Theory textbook from almost 50 years ago - handwritten by the professor, W.W. Tait, xeroxed, and handed out chapter by chapter in the class. Cover? Certainly not! I hand-wrote my own cover/table of contents on the binders I put them into. Absolutely the best.
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@tessarakt@mastodon.social 2026-01-28 06:16
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz Harro Heuser, Analysis. Really thorough and well-structured math textbook. Still was too stupid or not interested enough at the time, grade 2.7 (German grades - 1.0 is the best, 4.0 is narrowly passing) in the exam. But that's not the author's fault. On the other hand, never really got warm with Albrecht Beutelspacher, Lineare Algebra. Quite short, but maybe that's part of the problem.
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@Retreival9096@hachyderm.io 2026-01-28 16:37
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz My favorite math book: Plain light green cover: "Advanced Calculus" Author Nickerson. 1959 Just looked it up: New edition available for Kindle, and someone is selling (replica) first editions, leather bound, for ages 10 and up. [for all those 10 year olds who've had a year of calculus and now want to study calculus on manifolds]. From the description of possible defects due to "age", I'm pretty sure it's one of the companies that gets a book, cuts of the binding, and feeds it into a copier: but now you can get your copy bound in "leather".
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@ladytel@masto.hackers.town 2026-01-28 17:40
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz I miss my linear algebra text book. It just had the course name and the prof's name on it and we picked it up for $25 at the print shop
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@clew@ecoevo.social 2026-01-28 17:51
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz And Dover Editions! "This is a permanent book". Just picked one off the shelf -- Introduction to Graph Theory -- it falls open about 3/4 of the way through where the four-color theorem is introduced. *I've* never gotten that far in that book. Treats in store!