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I am looking at buying 1 of the 3 following Linear Algebra texts for my reference.

  • Introduction to Linear Algebra by Gilbert Strang 4th edition
  • Linear Algebra and its Applications by David Lay 4th edition
  • Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction by David Poole 3rd edition

The question I would like to ask is, which book is more reader-friendly for beginners? Hopefully, the concepts in the book are explained clearly in a layman's way and there are some proofs thrown in it as well.

Can anyone share their reviews on any of the 3 books???

Martin Sleziak
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Julian
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2 Answers2

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The Strang book might be useful if you are trying to learn the material in a systematic fashion, essentially as if you are taking a course, as you can watch a semester of Strang's lectures on youtube or in itunes. Other than not being able to ask questions, it's like sitting in class. I've done it for general review and enjoyed it greatly. You can also download his book as a pdf for free and also find solutions online. I suspect that you could check out his website for the course and find the problems he assigns.

The Strang book is one of the reference books that the UCB Math department lists for Linear Algebra review in order to prepare for the prelim exam for PhD students. The Prelim is intended to determine or insure that students have a good undergrad understanding of Mathematics. I got my PhD there and used that book as my main review source for the exam. I found it fairly straightforward. I've never taught Linear Algebra so I can't comment from that point of view and also, the book I had as an undergrad was too easy (at least once I got to graduate school).

I guess this means I think Strang should work. I'll add that the notation used is straightforward.

Hut

Hut
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I generally liked teaching out of an earlier edition of Poole (several years ago). I found I had time to do, and liked, some of his applications at the end of the sections. The students seemed to do well with the book. On the other hand (at least in the earlier editions--I haven't seen the more recent edition) the definition and discussion of general vector spaces was so late in the book that I had very little time for it. Also, the book was quite pricey at the time.

paw88789
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