Customer Reviews

Linear Analysis: An Introductory Course (Cambridge Mathematical Textbooks)

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I'm a math professor in the middle of developing an introductory functional analysis course whose prerequisites will be elementary linear algebra and metric space theory and whose intended focus will be on the *abstract* theory of normed spaces and bounded linear operators between them. This book by Bollobas is about the best fit for the class that I've been able to find after an extensive search. The author covers about the right topics in about right the depth, and from what I've been able to tell it is well-organized and well-written.

During the development of this curriculum, I've been using a 1999 printing of this book borrowed from the library, and it impressed me enough that I ordered a copy of my own from Amazon, which arrived just this afternoon. To my dismay, I learned that this book, like so many of Cambridge University Press's older works, has fallen victim to the "digital printing" scourge. Contrary to what Amazon's "Search Inside!" feature indicates, the copyright page now reads "Transferred to digital printing 2004". Not that you need the copyright page to tell you that, because the loss of crispness in the typography makes that abundantly clear. And, of course, this new copy has a "perfect binding" (a misnomer if ever there was one). If you like a book with a nice professional look to it, don't get your hopes up with this one. What a shame.

This undergrad text is very clear and Bollobas has a friendly style of writing. The coverage, though, is rather narrow and there are no applications. So I like Kreyszig better.