Good combinatorics books for self-study?

[myranaira]

I am a first-year physics major (currently in calc 2) and was wondering if there are any good introductory/low-level books on combinatorics through which I could educate myself over the summer. My college is offering a topics course on it next semester, but I was told by the professor that it has high prerequisites and I probably wouldn't understand it at the level that it will be taught at. Because my college is a small institution, it may not be taught again before I graduate, which is why I'm looking into studying it myself. Any tips or suggestions? Also, will it be difficult to learn the majority of combinatorics topics with only a calc 2 background?

 

[naele]

Though I can't recommend you a textbook, I will simply point you to the fact that there is a Schaum's Outline of combinatorics amazon link.

Schaum's has a good record for quality, though they tend to be meant as supplements as opposed to a stand-alone textbook. With that said given the price it can't hurt to have one, if only for the wealth of worked examples.