Rating: 
Summary: Quantity, not Quality!
Review: This is the standard textbook used in my Calculus classes and it has caused me more pain than anything else in my life. It is simply astounding to me that this book is over 1300 pages long and it still does not include, or provide adequate explanations for, important facts that are essential for the understand of Calculus. This book is impossible to read and understand: with so many errors and important facts left out, it's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The only good points of this book are the exercise problems, and the fact that it can be used for weight traning.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better books
Review: Too conceptual..the book does not rely on enough examples. Problem sets not like the examples worked out at all.
Rating:
Summary: Wanna learn Calculus? Stay away from Stewart!!!!!!!!
Review: This book is not the worst book on calculus, but it's one of the bad ones. If you're a professor or already learned calculus, you'll probably won't have trouble following it. However, for students like me taking calculus for the first time in my life, I find it VERY VERY hard to follow. I "was made" to purchase this book because my school uses this book. .. Wanna learn Calculus? STAY AWAY FROM Stewarts calulus!
Rating: 
Summary: too easy to read, but overall OK.
Review: This book introduces calculus in a less rigorous way. Very easy to read and follow, but only opens the door to modern calculus. You need at least another book to fully understand calculus.
Rating:
Summary: Good Kindling
Review: Ok let's get one thing straight. After finishing Precaculus, almost NO student is going to remember everything that he or she has learned in those classes. This book makes the erroneous assumption that they have.
The example problems help for one or two problems but after that you're on your own. The solutions manual leaves out more steps than a blind carpenter, and the written text is full of jargon that Newton himself wouldn't understand.
After 3 semesters with this book I am glad to say I never have to look at it ever again. In fact for much of Calc II I used a different book!
If you're a Professor thinking about making your students use this book, please look elsewhere. Don't make them spend valuable money on a text that they will end up resenting you for.
Rating:
Summary: Standard Textbook-Good for the Fundamentals, but not Clairty
Review: James Stewart's book is one of the several standard textbooks in single and multivariable calculus circulating in the marketplace. If you wish to learn the calculus rigourously, then this is the book to work through. However, it is not for the faint-hearted so far as mathematics is concerned; it is very dense and rigorous in many areas, filled with abstract definitions based on set theory (something nonmathematicians no doubt will have a hard time with). It also has many difficult and seemingly unsolvable problems, especially with the tedious integration drills with trig functions; once you understand you can easily find most of these exotic integrals using CAS or tables, you wonder what all the effort was for. The multivariable calculus and differential equations sections are thorough, and Stewart's treatment of vectors and vector calculus is surprisingly fresh and clear of jargon. On the positive side, the book is filled with many fascinating problems and projects related to the 'real' world, ranging from psychology to physics and astronomy. Interesting computational projects include proving Kepler's laws from Newton's gravity, the flight of a baseball, the calculus of rainbows, how to split a pizza the most effecient way, designing a dumpster with the most area and so on. Anyone with a heart for applied mathematics will not be dissapointed, nor those who demand rigor, given each theorem is carefully defined, and many rigorously proved. In summary, it is a standard, solid textbook that will provide a solid foundation for further studies in maths and the sciences. Its main drawback is its difficulty and rather formidable complexity and rigor (I would recommend starting calculus using an easier, more intuitive text like Kline or the Schaum's outlines series on calculus) which make it slow and heavy going for the nonmathematician. It is also not the best place to quickly learn the 'basics' of calculus for say, physics or engineering; for that I'd recommend 'Mathematical Techniques, 2nd Ed' by Jordan and Smith.
Rating:
Summary: Good Luck - wear a back brace!
Review: The information is incomplete. Stewart goes out of his way to make calculus as confusing as possible. Concepts are not fully explained. Some proofs are incomplete. I had to refer to an old textbook from the clearence rack ... written by Sokowski to learn the concepts. The author does an exceptionally poor job of explaining derivatives and integrals of exponential functions. Book weighs a ton!
Rating:
Summary: Please avoid this book!!!
Review: This book tends to complicate the subjects compare to other calculus book. For Calculus I or II, it might be bearable. But the mulivariable part of this book is the WORST ever. It makes the theorem extremely difficult to understand. Frequently, the problems given are extremely hard and long (3 - 4 pages of work), such as verifying the Stokes' theorem. And it DOESN'T have the solution in the back. (odd nor even problems) If you want to challenge yourself on those problems, go on. But if you are a regular student who just need to get an A or B in the course, stay away from it.
Rating:
Summary: Have a second book on hand for examples.
Review: The Stewart Calculus book is ok, but not great. It does not have nearly enough examples and is calculus dumbed down for the new math student. I found I had to look at the Thomas and Finney Calculus book, the old standard for calculus. The only redeemable feature of the book is that the derivatives and integrals sections are totally divided up between chapter 3 and 5; and there are practical applications of each in chapters 4 and 6 (respectively).
Rating: 
Summary: A very good descriptive book.
Review: Fifty percent of calculus 101 students fail their first time. This book has excellent graphics and explainations. I still use it as a reference. It helps you to understand the concepts of calculus - very important. Take the time to study the subject, thoroughly, from the first day of class; you cannot use this text book as an excuse for failure.
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