Which textbooks are the best?

Question

hi! which textbooks do you guys prefer?

i'm looking for comprehensive textbooks on geometry and algebra 2. (we already have a strange amount of precalc and calc books, ha.) i will be teaching myself, so i'd like them to be easy to read, and i will be correcting my work myself as well.

i've seen mention of the "saxon" line in many answers, why do many of you prefer these books?

(a good physics textbook would also be great, mine sucks.)

Answer 1

You may also want to try chalkdust.

http://www.chalkdust.com

Answer 2

Teaching Textbooks is great, especially if you're self-teaching:

http://www.teachingtextbooks.com

For physics, try Kinetic Books:

http://www.kineticbooks.com

Actually Kinetic Books has Algebra I also.

Answer 3

I would really recommend Teaching Textbooks!

It's just what the name implies.  I'm self taught as well and find it very useful and easy to comprehend.  You just read or watch a lesson every day.  Then you do and check the problems in your book.  If you get any wrong or don't understand them you just pop in the dvd and get a step-by-step explanation of it.  It's so great!  I love the funny word problems and cartoon illustrations.

The teacher on the dvd (you never see him) sounds really nice and teaches very conversationaly.  

Teaching Textbooks is not very widely used but is rapidly gaining support as a very successful curriculum.  I've used Saxon before and it's just really bland compared to this.  It's also excrutiatingly repetitive.  I could hardly make myself sit down and do it (but that's just me- it works well for a lot of people).  Go to:www.teaching textbook.com for more info..

As for Physics, I would recommend Apologia.

The text is very interesting and conversational.

Go to: www.apologia.com

hope this helps and gl :)

Answer 4

Saxon books used to be good, but with all this 'New Math' stuff, I wouldn't recommend them.

I've heard people recommend CalTech for physics.

Teaching Textbooks are pretty awesome.

Answer 5

Saxon is written in a way that you can go through the lesson yourself.  Sometimes it is helpful to have someone who already gets it read it when you get stuck, or even someone who can just read it from a different point of view.  But, they are great books.

The only issue is that Saxon doesn't have a separate geometry book.  Like most of the world, they incorporate geometry into Algebra II.  Only the US has geometry by itself.  

Good luck :D

Answer 6

We actually love the Algebra Demystified Books from McGraw-Hill.  They're not really a textbook, but are very easy to understand and to use.  My daughter loves them.