[tzs]

Pinter, "A Book of Abstract Algebra", is very nice. It's rigorous but not too terse. It divides the material into many small chapters with many exercises. Chapters are mostly around 10+/-3 pages with about 40-60% of that being text and the rest exercises.

The exercises for each chapter are split into several sections each section covering a different aspect of the chapter's material. Sometimes there is a section of exercises applying the material to some interesting area.

For example, the chapter on groups of permutations has 6 pages of text, then 5 pages of exercises divided into 9 sections. Those sections are: computing elements in S6 (5 problems), examples of groups of permutations (4 problems), groups of permutations in R (4 problems), a cyclic group of permutations (4 problems), a subgroup of SR (4 problems), symmetries of geometric figures (4 problems), symmetries of polynomials (4 problems), properties of permutations of a set A (4 problems), and algebra of kinship structures which consists of 9 problems covering how anthropologists have applied groups of permutations to describe kinship systems in primitive societies.

There are answers in the back for a decent number of the exercises.

It's a Dover republication so is not too hard on the wallet. List price is $30 at Dover but its around $20 on Amazon.

The combination of short chapters and lots of exercises make it easier than most textbooks to fit into a busy adult schedule.

[nyrikki]

Thank you, ordered it.