[seanhunter]

This is such a common misunderstanding it's worth explaining.

If you get a book in stem called "an introduction to x" it isn't claiming to be short or simple at all. What "introduction" means is that it is intended for a first course in that topic (ie it does not have prerequisites within that topic).

So if I get "an introduction to mechanics" by Kleppner and Kolenkow[1] for example (to pick one off my bookshelf), it is a challenging first course in classical mechanics but it doesn't require you to know any mechanics before reading it.

[1] This is a really good book in my opinion btw.