dijkarte said:
I've taken a comprehensive course using an older edition of Kolman's. But is not Hoffman and Kunze a quite expensive for a dated book? Unless it has a more comprehensive content than others, which I doubt telling from the number of pages...I would consider buying something newer.
What about the Dover's book? Is it rigorous as the ones you suggested?
Thanks.
It's older, but it's definitely not outdated. The books that I listed here (and the one in your differential equations thread) are very complete in a sense that they build the theory up from where most rigorous approaches to calculus left off. I think that this approach is important because it emphasizes the connection between the topics. I took calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra using standard undergraduate textbooks - the ones that produce new editions every year - but I did not realize their relations until I relearned them in a rigorous (theoretical) context.
Also, the number of pages, age, and price of a book does not typically indicate the value of the content. You might spend more money on the textbook by Hoffman and Kunze, but I guarantee that you'll spend more time on each page than most other linear algebra books. The book is dense - it's definition, theorem, proof, corollary all the way through, so you'll probably be spending a lot of time testing the theorems, providing counterexamples, thinking through the problems, etc.
micromass said:
For some weird reason, I don't like Axler. He doesn't do determinants (except a weird approach in the last chapters), which I think is a mistake. Other people love the book though, so you might like it.
Yeah, lots of schools use it as a main text for their advanced or theoretical linear algebra courses, but I think that Hoffman and Kunze would be more suitable. I don't think that Axler should be disregarded though; I think it should be read after Hoffman and Kunze as a "hey, you can also learn linear algebra like this!" sort of text. It's not necessary, but it could be interesting or valuable depending on your tastes. :)
