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General: [Closed] Which graduate algebra text would you choose to keep if forced to make a choice?

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    • CommentAuthorAndrewL
    • CommentTimeOct 31st 2010
     

    This is CLEARLY not an appropriate question for the main MO board-but it may be ok here for meta. Also,I want the input of professional mathematicians (especially the algebracists) on this question which has been a personal corundum not only for myself,but several of my fellow cash-strapped graduate students.

    Suppose you have Paul Cohn's BASIC ALGEBRA;GROUPS,RINGS AND FIELDS and FURTHER ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS,both volumes of Nathan Jacobson's BASIC ALGEBRA (the new Dover paperbacks),Lang's ALGEBRA and Anthony Knapp's BASIC ALGEBRA and ADVANCED ALGEBRA-and you need to sell one of the sets.

    Which one would you sell? I'd like input from people familiar with all these books to give thier opinions based on both thier opinions of the books themselves and thier usefulness as texts. I'll give my opinions when I get some feedback.

  2.  
    I would recommend that you not sell books you love, as it isn't a very good way to make money. Instead, you could sell blood plasma.
    • CommentAuthorDeleted
    • CommentTimeOct 31st 2010 edited
     
    --- commented deleted by moderator ---
    • CommentAuthorAndrewL
    • CommentTimeOct 31st 2010
     

    So much for honest replies to a real question.

  5.  
    The meta forum is primarily meant as a place where we can discuss issues pertaining to MO. You appear to be desiring meta to be an alternative mathematics discussion forum where topics deemed inappropriate for MO can be snuck in via a back-door. I don't think this is a productive road to walk down.
  6.  

    +1 Ryan. Andrew, I do not understand why the realness of your question somehow trumps the rules of this forum. This is precisely the kind of thing chat.stackexchange.com was recently opened for.

  7.  

    @Ryan: I still think that when I posted here about Grothendieck's letter, that was fine though (at least until it got picked up on SBS). I think there was also a meta thread about the ICM or something like that (maybe it was the Abel prize?). However, those were topics that were very much of interest to people who come to MO, and we only used meta until there was someplace else to discuss it.

  8.  
    @Harry, sure rules occasionally get broken but usually for a good reason -- in that we prefer rules to be simple with the occasional exception rather than having an elaborate and unreadable legal code that deals with every possible situation which we adhere to rigidly. We also strive to ensure rules aren't broken, with far more emphasis on this last point than the earlier one.

    If I recall correctly the ICM thread had details about people advertising MO, and an MO user get-together, things like that. So it wasn't entirely an exception. Anyhow, I don't see how this digression helps any.
  9.  

    I've closed this thread. meta is primarily intended for discussion of the operation and policies of mathoverflow itself. In particular, users who are currently suspended on the main site should not expect that they can come over here and start off-topic threads.

    @AndrewL: I recall that you announced you were starting a blog a while ago. May I recommend that you post such material there, where precisely those who are interested will find it?

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