Which Calculus book did you use?

[Freakyp]

Hi, I'm a rising freshman. I will be taking Calc I and 2 this coming year. The standard text is Stewart's CALCULUS: EARLY TRANS (SINGLE VARIABLE) W/CD. However, I've heard some horrible stories about this book. So, I would like to get another book to supplement the required one. I would appreciate it if you guys/gals could recommend me some good calculus textbooks. Thanks in advance.

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[dmoney41]

I'm not sure about better books, but I can definitely confirm that Stewart sucks. Infinitely moreso if you get the softback version (all our bookstore stocked) that disintegrates within months, leaving that $120 expenditure worthless. I suspect it was a sinister conspiracy to save money on buybacks.

 

[Assembler]

I used Stewart.

From what I remember, I didn't like it...It had too many shortcuts when explaining the solutions to the example problems. You'll get used to it eventually though.

 

[madrigail]

We used Swokowski (sp?) And I really liked it...very nice explanations.

 

[AlternateSome1]

I've heard some really bad things about Stewart from my girlfriend, who is working on her Masters in math right now. When I took calculus I used Thomas & Finney, 9th edition. I had to use it for about five courses, and I really thought it was a good text.

 

[BisMuOxo]

I am going to break from the crowd here. I used Stewart's book and thought it was great (I used his texts for three entire semesters of calculus). Many people don't like calculus because it is hard, and they end up blaming the book for their troubles. If you are willing to put in the time to understand the material (not just how to do problems), this text will be just fine.

 

[SpiderBill]

Yeah I thought it was great too. You're right though, it does skip some steps, which was actually good for me because it helped me read more actively.

 

[Freakyp]

Thanks for all the responses. I'll just stick with the book.

 

[bewitched1081]

stewart is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! self-learned.

 

[rcd]

i used the ti-89 user manual.