ISBN0321356918

I used the second edition of this book, but I am sure that my
opinion of the third edition would be just as complimentary.
The author knows his audience. He writes in a clear and concise
manner. The examples and illustrations are outstanding in their
thoroughness and clarity. The most important thing about this
book is that your are thoroughly prepared for your next course
which is probably precalculus. The only thing I took exception
to was that the book did not go far enough into the topics of
exponential and logarithmic functions. The material that was
presented was presented in a superior manner, it just did not
go far enough. All in all if I were a school teacher, this is
the book I would use for a college algebra course and sight
unseen I would probably adopt his books on precalculus.

I got this book for my college math class as required for the course. I'm half way through so far and it's easy to digest. I would say that if one were to self-study, he or she may need additional sources to help them figure out some of the topics in some chapters due to the lack of examples. There are examples though, but just not enough to cover every type of variation in the chapters.

I guess it would be up to instructors and teachers to fill in the rest. This book also has many little chunks of how to perform problems such as functions and graphing on graphing calculators. Depending on your instructor or teacher, this may or may not be used at all, but it does help to have the flexibility of training yourself to use a calculator for future courses.

Oh and best of all, Thanks Amazon! I got this book brand new straight from Amazon at a very good price and it came in 3 days through the free shipping option.