I am technical, and I like math, but I am not a math whiz.  I need books that go at a nice relaxed pace, and which give me plenty of opportunities to work interesting problems.<br><br>This book fits those requirements perfectly.  The explanations are simple and concrete.  Pinter excels at breaking down complicated concepts into very small, practically painless steps.  The exercises are a critical part of this scheme.  A lot of important material is developed there, so I am trying to work them all.  Very few answers are in the back of the book, but the problems are not very hard.<br><br>In my case I am using this as a textbook in a course.  I stay two chapters ahead of the professor, so I am sort of going through the book without a guide.  The lack of a guide is no problem; in fact, the book serves as a guide to the professor, rather than the usual vice versa.<br><br>This is not a perfect book.  The index is pretty crummy, and the many sections of exercises are not labeled in a way that lets you see what subjects are being developed. The book doesn't work well if you are trying to look something up.  Also, it omits some material covered by other introductory books (which I see as an advantage, but others might not).<br><br>This book is really optimized for teaching, and it's very good at that.  Combine this with the incredible price, and you have a fabulous deal.