07.06.08
Ode to Dover
In the old days of physics grad school, Terry and I would hang out at TIS and talk about books. The conversation would go like this.
Terry: Did you ever buy one of those Dover books?
Me: No. It’s like looking at a subject like solid state physics from the eyes of the ’60s. They never revised the thing.
Terry: Well if you ever find extra change in your car seat and you want all of the equations in one place, you can blow $9.95 on the Dover version.
Dover is a publishing house that sells Pulp Physics and Pulp Linear Algebra. The paper and the printing are sub-pron, and they seem never to revise their books. We grad students never stooped to the Dover level, and would rather pay $200 for a real book.
My life came full circle as this ex-physicist who sold all of his physics and math texts suddenly found a need for linear algebra. Ironically, now that I make several times my stipend, I hunted for the cheapest linear algebra that could explain what I once knew. I came across this one,
Matrices and Transformations by Anthony Pettofrezzo. I blew all of 7 bucks on the thing. It’s my first Dover book. And it’s a good one. I’m inverting matrices like a high school genius. Eigenvectors are my gimp. Now, if only I can get back to my grad-school form.