[mturmon]

I purchased [2], having enjoyed Nick Higham's other book (a treatise on matrix computations), and knowing how well-received [1] was.

But, [2] turned out to be kind of a dud. It was not really fun to browse, and I wasn't sure who it was directed to. The articles that I sampled read like they were intended for academic applied math folks, rather than introductions for interested outsiders. It's a huge book, so YMMV, and has been very well-reviewed by high-profile and well-qualified academics (like Steven Strogatz) but I spent a couple evenings with the book and could not recommend.

In any event, it's not like Feynmann's lectures! It's an encyclopedia.

TLDR: "it was good for someone, but it was not the book I wanted".

(PS: recommending the CRC tables is an odd thing, this is also nothing like Feymann's lectures)