Sheldon Axler's "Algebra & Trigonometry" vs. "Precalculus: A Prelude."

[ghostwind]

Yes, I can imagine the early edition of Thomas and even Stewart were probably a lot better. But I've already settled on Spivak and like it just fine. Remember, for me, this is more review as I've taken a lot of math before and done well. But I want something more heavy to supplement the easy/computational Stewart book. Early Thomas, while most surely better, is I would think in my intermediate list of books. And that is redundant for me. I want more in-depth, theory, and analysis. Spivak is a nice supplement IMO so far. I've done proofs before, so books like "How to Solve It" won't be too helpful. Spivak is nice because the problems are challenging. The text itself is easy to read through. Same goes for Apostol, though Apostol is more thorough. So I would recommend an intermediate book to a serious beginner, but for someone that's gone through it a long time ago, and needs to use a computational book for refreshing, then the better supplement is Spivak or Apostol which go deep and make you think.