[Math] Spivak, Abbott or Apostol

book-recommendationcalculusreal-analysisreference-request

I am a beginner who wants to self-study rigorous calculus and real analysis. (I just had elementary high school calculus)

Not a few people recommended me Spivak's calculus, which is known as a great introduction to proof based mathematics.

I was also informed about Abbott's Understanding Analysis, I guess this book would be incredibly enjoyable to work through, nevertheless someone said that it should be a very tough adventure especially with weak calculus background 🙁

The last one is Apostol's Calculus, but I don't know this book very well.

I am a bit confused since I have no idea which one would be a suitable selection. Thus I'm begging for an advice :0

Best Answer

We should be clear about the difference between "calculus" and "real analysis." Based on the candidate texts, it seems you are interested in the former and not the latter. If you have familiarity with high school calculus, then either Spivak or Apostol (Volume 1) will be suitable for an undergraduate-level calculus text. My personal preference is Apostol, but again, either will suffice.

However, if you want to learn about real analysis, neither text is going to be an adequate treatment. To be clear, you will get pieces of this in an undergraduate calculus text--e.g., limits and continuity, the Riemann integral, etc. For an introductory and relatively accessible text in real analysis, I would suggest Walter Rudin's classic text, Principles of Mathematical Analysis. This is a very concentrated treatment of the subject and it is well-regarded precisely because of its brevity and elegance in distilling the material to its essential elements.