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From: Frederick Williams on 5 May 2010 10:16
I was going to buy Spanier's Algebraic Topology to learn some... um...
algebraic topology. Unfortunately the paperback costs forty four quid
from Amazon(*) so I'm wondering if there is something similar that is
more reasonably priced.

(* How I hate them: is there any e-commerce web site that is more
cluttered and full of errors than Amazon?)
--
I can't go on, I'll go on.
From: A on 5 May 2010 11:14
On May 5, 10:16 am, Frederick Williams <frederick.willia...(a)tesco.net>
wrote:
> I was going to buy Spanier's Algebraic Topology to learn some... um...
> algebraic topology.  Unfortunately the paperback costs forty four quid
> from Amazon(*) so I'm wondering if there is something similar that is
> more reasonably priced.
>
> (* How I hate them: is there any e-commerce web site that is more
> cluttered and full of errors than Amazon?)
> --
> I can't go on, I'll go on.


Hatcher's introductory algebraic topology textbook is much newer, more
popular at this point, and still available for free download from
Hatcher's website. Students taking the course usually like Hatcher
because it's fairly geometric, includes a lot of pictures, and so on;
somehow Spanier has a reputation for being more difficult than
Hatcher. I personally learned more from Spanier than from any other
algebraic topology textbook and in my mind Spanier's treatment of the
subject is the best available in any single introductory textbook on
the topic; to me his approach (which is more algebraic and less
geometric than Hatcher) seems far more natural than Hatcher's. But
Hatcher's is free for download, which is very very nice.
From: Frederick Williams on 5 May 2010 14:08
A wrote:
>
> On May 5, 10:16 am, Frederick Williams <frederick.willia...(a)tesco.net>
> wrote:
> > I was going to buy Spanier's Algebraic Topology to learn some... um...
> > algebraic topology. Unfortunately the paperback costs forty four quid
> > from Amazon(*) so I'm wondering if there is something similar that is
> > more reasonably priced.
> >
> > (* How I hate them: is there any e-commerce web site that is more
> > cluttered and full of errors than Amazon?)

>
> Hatcher's introductory algebraic topology textbook is much newer, more
> popular at this point, and still available for free download from
> Hatcher's website. Students taking the course usually like Hatcher
> because it's fairly geometric, includes a lot of pictures, and so on;
> somehow Spanier has a reputation for being more difficult than
> Hatcher. I personally learned more from Spanier than from any other
> algebraic topology textbook and in my mind Spanier's treatment of the
> subject is the best available in any single introductory textbook on
> the topic; to me his approach (which is more algebraic and less
> geometric than Hatcher) seems far more natural than Hatcher's. But
> Hatcher's is free for download, which is very very nice.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll download it and buy it if I like it.

--
I can't go on, I'll go on.
From: William Elliot on 6 May 2010 02:31
On Wed, 5 May 2010, Frederick Williams wrote:

> I was going to buy Spanier's Algebraic Topology to learn some... um...
> algebraic topology. Unfortunately the paperback costs forty four quid
> from Amazon(*) so I'm wondering if there is something similar that is
> more reasonably priced.
>
> (* How I hate them: is there any e-commerce web site that is more
> cluttered and full of errors than Amazon?)

I like Powell's Bookstore, even after they became unionized.
From: Christopher Henrich on 7 May 2010 00:15
In article <4BE17DAC.41BCA56D(a)tesco.net>,
Frederick Williams <frederick.williams2(a)tesco.net> wrote:

> I was going to buy Spanier's Algebraic Topology to learn some... um...
> algebraic topology. Unfortunately the paperback costs forty four quid
> from Amazon(*) so I'm wondering if there is something similar that is
> more reasonably priced.
>
> (* How I hate them: is there any e-commerce web site that is more
> cluttered and full of errors than Amazon?)

Hatcher's Algebraic Topology is available as a free download from
Cambridge University Press.

--
Christopher J. Henrich
chenrich(a)monmouth.com
http://www.mathinteract.com
"A bad analogy is like a leaky screwdriver." -- Boon
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