[.ca] Vector Calculus (ISBN 0131858742)

wonderful book:
I love this book. Unlike most math majors who get through life by memorizing formulas in a relatively brainless activity, this book actually explains why/how things work. If you take the time to go through this book step by step, examples and all, you will get a beautiful understanding of multivariable calculus. I enjoyed both geometry and single variable calculus a lot, and multivariable calculus is a nice combo of those two.

DO NOT BUY THIS TEXTBOOK!:
This is most likely the most miserable math textbook I have ever had the misfortune to read. I showed it to my Mom (who has a Master's Degree in Math) thinking perhaps I was simply really stupid and she agreed that this textbook is abysmal. For example, the proofs often go into great detail concerning the arithmetic of the proof, but then the author fails to state clearly by what principle she jumps from one step of the proof to another. The great bonding session for the 13 members of my class has been comiserating over the poor quality of the textbook and trading tips about better Multivariable/Vector Calculus texts to buy in order to elucidate the material presented in Colley. Perhaps math professors find this book wonderful, but if the point of the text is to teach Multivariable Calculus to less than math-genius students (who are nevertheless somewhat adept at math) the text completely fails. If you have to get this text for your class because your teacher doesn't care whether his students actually learn the material, get an accompanying text to help. I have been using my brother's Multivariable text (by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards) and another person in my class highly recommended Stewart's treatment of Multivariable Calculus.

A very poor mathematics text indeed:
After having been taught Vector Calculus with this book last semester, I feel that I can say, without a doubt, it is terrible. Although there are a plethora of problems with this text, I will only say its biggest: the poor examples the text tries to make use of which leave the reader feeling more confused than when he/she set out. While this may (or may not) be a fun read for Calculus professors, it certainly should never be used to teach students the finer points of advanced calculus, and any professor who willingly uses this text over and over again should be fired.

Awesome:
Professor Colley's book excels in all the areas one would look for including abundant examples, fine graphics, excellent graded problems, clear writing, good organization and so on. It stands out particularly for the author's sensitive presentation which not only presents the material in a clear, logical form but in such a way as to anticipate the questions of the reader. The use of geometric intuition is especially effective. Not being a great talent at mathematics, I found that this book clarified many ideas that I had not understood before. How the negative critics came up with their ideas is a mystery.