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Title: The Bane of My Mathematical Existence
Review: If you are in charge of designing curricula for your Place of Higher Learning, please don't force your students to use this book as anything more than a doorstop. It's full of text, 70% of which is unnecessary filler. One of the author's favorite pedantic methods is using the phrase "convince yourself that [some mathematical idea is true]" instead of actually proving it. This might be acceptable if the author had balanced out the massive seas of empty text with massive seas of examples. But keeping with the theme of the book ("useless"), there are few examples, which are what usually makes a textbook valuable.The one bright spot is reading the uncomfortably forced praise on the back cover.
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