This is an outstanding introductory book on thermal physics, with readability and clarity put at the forefront. The author painstakingly explains key derivations, delineating practically every step with a masterful combination of prose and equations. The chapters concerning the key fundamental results on statistical mechanics (the various ensembles and distribution statistics) are the best I've seen, blowing away McQuarrie (both his undergrad and grad level books) and Chandlers' texts. The graduate level books have their merits, either in depth and/or rigor, but on average, I think Schroeder's approach will allow the readers to get their feet wet the most effectively.<br><br>It's perfect as either your first read or as a companion piece to more comprehensive, first year graduate level texts. There are very few critical typos, which I think is important for first time readers trying to parse the difference between the jargon (microstates, macrostates, particle states, system states, multiplicity, density of state...). In any case, the author makes great effort in his definitions of terms. You're in good hands, I promise.<br><br>This book requires just a bit of multi variable calculus but no vector calculus is required. The various transforms (Legendre, Fourier, Laplace, etc.) are only mentioned briefly as means to obtain important results, but they are not a prerequisite. Familiarity with a very rudimentary level of wave function formalism of quantum mechanics becomes crucial in the later chapters.<br><br>This text contains very few, completely solved examples. I actually liked this approach since it keeps the book slim and compact. The author explains on his website defending his choice. I think the effort he places in explaining the derivations of key ideas step by step more than makes up for the lack of an easily accessible solution manual.<br><br>Finally, I like to point out that the price of this modern, hardcover text is close to one-third of its close relatives. Take a look at the price tags of Ahlfors, Baby Rudin, 2nd edition Sakurai, 3rd edition Boas, etc.... It's one of the most generously priced, recently produced hardcover science texts on the market today.<br><br>Five stars all the way!