text: I expected this to be dry and mechanical like lots of other math texts - too-technical proofs, homework questions irrelevant to the material, insufficient explanations for why things are the way they are. This book really surprised me because it wasn't "mathy" at all. It doesn't just throw proofs at you expecting you to wade thru page upon page of math notation until you understand - it gives you the intuitive side of important concepts, which means you only need common sense, not an intensive mathematical background to get everything. The examples they picked simplify rather than confuse the concepts. Each easily and naturally leads to the next. If there's anything not thoroughly elaborated, they were sure to cover it in the homework questions, by gently prodding the reader along towards the answer step by step instead of smacking them in the face with impossible problems. Homework questions supplement the material perfectly and basically leave you with a full and well-rounded impression of what the concepts mean as well as when and why to use them, not just how to plug numbers into some formula.
  If anything, I'd say this book errs on the side of caution in that in some sections it could pick up the pace a little. But then again, you could always just skip the easier parts
  