What book are you reading now?

Reading this book at the moment.

It's elementary but I'm still learning from it.

Only 1060 pages.  Up to page  130 at 9pm  today.

I was going to sing praises of this book.

But the hard truth is that sections of it are very heavy going.   And if i hadn't had years of experience in working with calculus I would have been totally lost and given up on it.  Another way of saying it, is that I understand specific parts because I learnt it somewhere else.

I'm up to page 183.

I think so much or whether or not we enjoy/understand a topic/book depends on the teacher, not so much on their level of knowledge but more on how they teach. I had a ridiculously intelligent statistics teacher in my 3rd year, I'm sure his level of knowledge on the topic was phenomenal but he wasn't a good teacher, he didn't hold my attention or explain things in a way that was easy to understand. In contrast, my statistics tutor for my second year statistics module was great, he had a good sense of humour and could teach in a way that held my attention. He did really good examples too, for example, to explain how the mediator variable mediates on the effect that the independent variable has on the dependent variable, he got some of my class mates up to be the MV, DV and IV and the IV had to do a silly dance which the DV copied but then the MV started doing a different silly dance which changed the dance that the DV was doing. See, this was back in 2003 and I can still remember it now, so it was a good example. It's the same with books. Even if the subject is difficult, if the author explains it in a good way then it is still easy to understand. Good luck with the rest of the book.

Sorry for the late reply to your post.  I've just noticed it.

At school I took the A level,  Pure maths with Statistics.

The pure maths teacher was fine and he was regarded as the best maths teacher in the school.  One piece of advice he gave us was that when doing homework problems.  Don't spend too much time worrying if you're stuck.  Go out enjoy yourself get some fresh air.  Try again tomorrow and the day after.  After seven days he guaranteed we would solve the problem.  If not,. ' then you're just plain thick and there's no hope for you'.

The Statistics teacher was very different.  She started full of confidence , saying that this module was equivalent to just one of eight modules she took per year as part of her degree.

Her teaching was ok but her technical knowledge was lacking.  

We started in September 1978 and the course went ok.  By end of January 1979 she got stuck and started repeating material.  In the end she confessed that she had taught what she understood and the rest of the course was unintelligible to her.

I lost confidence in her, got a copy of the official course syllabus from the local academic bookshop and a modern up to date textbook.  And taught myself.

For the second year, starting September 1979, she was replaced by another teacher.  Who was better academically.  But he stopped teaching and starting revising in March 1980, for the June exam.  About one third of the course was never taught in that school.

Sorry for the late reply to your post.  I've just noticed it.

At school I took the A level,  Pure maths with Statistics.

The pure maths teacher was fine and he was regarded as the best maths teacher in the school.  One piece of advice he gave us was that when doing homework problems.  Don't spend too much time worrying if you're stuck.  Go out enjoy yourself get some fresh air.  Try again tomorrow and the day after.  After seven days he guaranteed we would solve the problem.  If not,. ' then you're just plain thick and there's no hope for you'.

The Statistics teacher was very different.  She started full of confidence , saying that this module was equivalent to just one of eight modules she took per year as part of her degree.

Her teaching was ok but her technical knowledge was lacking.  

We started in September 1978 and the course went ok.  By end of January 1979 she got stuck and started repeating material.  In the end she confessed that she had taught what she understood and the rest of the course was unintelligible to her.

I lost confidence in her, got a copy of the official course syllabus from the local academic bookshop and a modern up to date textbook.  And taught myself.

For the second year, starting September 1979, she was replaced by another teacher.  Who was better academically.  But he stopped teaching and starting revising in March 1980, for the June exam.  About one third of the course was never taught in that school.