[ryanmonroe]

An added benefit to learning from a book that's more popular is that if you hit a wall and have a specific question about the material as it's presented in your book, you're more likely to find your question answered online. You might even be able to find course material that follows the book, whether from an official online course or just because the professor at some university didn't bother to make the course page blocked off from non-students.

[mafribe]

   book that's more popular 

Yet another benefit of popular books is that they won't be first edition, so a lot of mistakes that make it into the first edition will have been ironed out.

Don't underestimate how much a strategically placed typo can confuse a learner.

Rule of thumb: avoid first edition maths books.

[_asummers]

I once had an analysis book that began the chapter "There exists epsilon < 0", which I found very amusing.

[chestervonwinch]

I've found this to be a big plus in my experience. Additionally, if you're question has not been answered, you at least have the benefit of widespread familiarity with the text you are using. This means friendly internet folk will have less mental overhead due to notation, etc., and less of a barrier to answering your question if you ask.