Ask HN: Foundational Books
Hi, I am looking for examples of technical books that are relatively short but well-written and provide a strong foundation for their topics. Such an example for me is Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus. Do you have other examples - e.g. about forecasting, linear algebra, graphics, etc.
Comments
Friedman & Felleisen - The Little Schemer. The style doesn't work as well for me personally, but it's clearly very short and a popular way into the language and the way of thought.
Stroustrup - A Tour of C++. Getting a bit dated, but given how large the language has become over the decades, having a short synopsis can be quite valuable.
Rudin - Principles of Mathematical Analysis (aka "baby rudin"). Not as short as the others, but worth the read.
Emil Artin - Galois Theory. It has a super brief chapter on linear algebra and determinants that is extremely on-point.
Spivak - Calculus on manifolds. Not my personal favorite, but it's short and super classic.
Milnor - Topology from the differentiable viewpoint. Super-brief classic.
A. I. Khinchin - Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory
F. A. Ficken - The Simplex Method of Linear Programming
K & R - The C programming language
Emil Artin - The Gamma Function