Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good, March 2, 2004
Level of the book: 3rd-4th year undergrad or 1st-2nd year grad (pretty big range).Don't let other reviews fool you. This book does an excellent job covering the material at hand, especially given the task West set out to achieve. The book basically stands alone thanks to thorough appendices and a fair amount of examples, plus lots of problems (mostly proofs). Because this material is proof-based, I cannot suggest that this book could stand alone, but that someone else should review problems and such. When I first was reading this book, I ignored the appendices, and that was my downfall. Once I started using all the tools in this book, things started coming together. Because of the intricate design, I would recommend this book only to people who are serious about a thorough introduction to graph theory. That is, actually proving many of the theorems that play a central role in this introduction. For a simple introduction to concepts, I would recommend Trudeau's book, "Introduction to Graph Theory," which is a good read and introduces a few of the ideas and definitions of graph theory, but does not focus on proofs. My only major quarrel with this book is that it is completely void of color! This would be EXTREMELY useful in this book because many of the diagrams are complicated and different color labels would make things much clearer (instead of bolding lines and such). The increased price of the book would certainly be worth the clarity from color. There are also some typos throughout the book, but none too major (that have been noticed). Overall, I would highly recommend this book over any other, but consider waiting until an edition with color comes out.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Graph lovers' book, May 25, 2005
West is enthusiastic about graph theory. I do not recommend this book for independent study, nor would I recommend it for a first-time student of graph theory. It is called "Introduction to Graph Theory", not because it is an appropriate introductory text for new students, but because it covers a broad area of the subject. I recommend it for a student who has read at least one lower-level introductory text and would like to round out their knowledge of graph theory in a more in-depth way.
I have two problems with this book. They both stem from the fact that it reads more like a collection of journal articles than like a cohesive text book. One is that his notation is very specific--he does not always use the most common form of notation, and this means that dipping into the book is difficult. The second problem for me is that West defines many things that I do not feel need defining. Rather than using a short description of a certain type of graph whenever he refers to it, he will give it a label. Again, this makes dipping into his text rather difficult, especially since many of the things he defines are not generally given a definition. Both of these would be perfectly reasonable for a journal article, but seem rather out of place in a large textbook--his definitions particularly clutter up his work. Perhaps West is more used to writing papers than textbooks.
Having said that, West is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. His exercises are wonderful, marked with a (-) for easy, a (+) for difficult, a (!) for particularly instructive, and a (*) for problems based on optional material. Several of the (!) problems I have worked required me to actually look up the paper that they are based on for the final solution--which is possible due to his excellent citations. His index of works cited is an education in itself, and any student wishing to pursue a specific area in greater depth will find his book an wonderful gateway.
My perspective: I am an undergraduate student doing summer research in graph theory, working under a professor.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good middling book, October 10, 2005
The treatment is logically rigorous and impeccably arranged, yet, ironically, this book suffers from its best feature: it is comprehensive. As a book becomes more encyclopedic, it becomes less useful for pedagogy. Introduction to Graph Theory is somewhere in the middle. It is an adequate reference work and an adequate textbook. Steering a middle course, the book is bound to dissatisfy people with specific needs, but readers needing both a reference and a text will find the book satisfying.
If you buy it for pedagogical purposes, be prepared to consult other works for a more intuitive approach. Introduction to Graph Theory presents few models, relying instead on logically rigorous development. Personally, I'm for both, but that takes up space, meaning less material can be covered.
I'm glad I bought the book, and I will keep it for a future reference.
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