[JadeNB]

> the Springer group theory book

I am skeptical that this uniquely identifies a book (unless you mean the book "Linear Algebraic Groups" by the author called Springer, rather than the publisher called Springer, in which case it's definitely not the way to start learning group theory!).

[gosub100]

It was the yellow Springer publishing book. Happened 20+ years ago now, cannot recall the author. IIRC the title was "a course in the theory of groups".

[layer8]

This one, probably: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-8594-1

It’s a graduate-level text, to be fair.