Rating: 
Summary: Overrated!
Review: Why is there no solution manual available for this book? Each section of Kreysig's text contains dozens of difficult exercises that bear little resemblance to the straight-forward sample problems. For self-study, no mass-marketed math textbook could possibly be worse. In class, using this book can often be as bad. Professors and TAs (at the University of Pennsylvania, at least) serve only to further obfuscate an already incomprehensible text. I'm not bitter because I failed the course- actually I did fairly well- but the inordinate amount of effort it takes to master this material should simply not be necessary. What is the point of having a textbook that tries to address 20 different areas of mathematics if each topic is treated so haphazardly?
Rating:
Summary: Needs a solutions manual, at the very least.
Review: This author utilizes archaic and unnecessary comlpicated approaches to explain advanced concepts. Some of the problem situations are incomprehensible, and I have found the same or similar problems in other more rudimentary texts explained so that I can understand them. I would not have purchased this text had it not been required for the class.The lack of solutions manual is doubly painful. The answers are insufficient in the learning process.
Rating: 
Summary: Very useful book
Review: I used this book during my undergraduate studies in Pakistan and as a reference during my graduate studies in the US. I do not know of a more comprehensive book on advanced engineering mathematics. It covers practically all topics that an engineer is likely to need. The exercises are also very good, stimulating and have a sufficient variety of problems. The book is definitely a must for any engineering student who wants to have a solid math background.
Rating:
Summary: Advanced book for advanced students !!
Review: I couldn't believe people who have very shallow background in maths even dare to read Kreyszig and then criticise it ! This book is meant for `advanced' students not beginners in maths. If a person still wants to know the definition of DE what is he doing with advanced engineering ?? he might as well drop the major and take up easier majors requiring pre-calc etc. This book is superb for prepared students only with certain inclination towards serious self-study and immense practice of solving problems. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEARTS !!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely hard to read!
Review: As a nuclear Engineering student its a good thing I have a strong background in the areas of calculus DE's and the such. If I were to have learned simple ODE's with this book I probably would have failed. There is a lot of info here, but it is conveyed poorly. I will definitely sell this back and look for a better reference book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good information on just about every topic imagineable
Review: This is an excellent text which happened to be the text for a DiffEQ course I took as an undergrad. It just so happens that this could have been the text for just about ANY of the math courses I took. Any time I have a question, or want to learn a new method, this text will usually have helpful information. I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: simplest applied mathematics book
Review: i used this book in undergraduate physics and found it to be the least painful way to study applied math. compared to the course text, arfken, it was a very easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent !!!
Review: Having worked thru' the Kreyszig book as an ugrad in EE, back in the late 70s in India, and then reading the various editions of the same book by Prof. Kreyszig, I am appalled at the mindless apathy for the book as shown in the Amazon website by some readers. For a lack of a better word, I believe that most of these readers have a very warped up sense of applied mathematics - that is mathematics as it applies to solution of engineering problems. Kreyszig's book is a goldmine of information, and its latest edition contains a whole slew of carefully chosen problems that are worked out plus homework exercises to aid the student in mastering the necessary analytical techniques essential to solving problems. I have observed that of late in USA there is a lot of acerbic hostility towards mathematics. Most of the readers (including the teacher and the taught) express their displeasure if they cannot " sell " mathematics like some commodities in a grocery store. The students on the other hand, being too pampered by the existing escapism in a society are reluctant to accept the rigors of any mathematical training and hence are most unhappy if a math. text demands some discipline in terms of focussed concentration and thinking. It is excepected and unfortunate that such critics shall continue to judge such well-written and comprehensive texts on applied mathematics (such as Kreyszig) most boring and their displeasure is a substitute for more cogent and incisive analytical review.
Rating:
Summary: An effort, but worth it.
Review: I have owned a copy of the 2nd edition of Kreyszig's book for nearly 30 years, and although I left engineering nearly that long ago, it is a continuing source of recreation. Kreyszig does not make things easy, he expects the reader to work hard, and tackling the exercises is essential for proper understanding. The development of each chapter is severely logical, with perhaps a bit more rigour than suits the strictly practical taste. This excellent book is wonderfully complete and repays the work it requires.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Worst Applied Mathematics Textbook Ever
Review: It is indeed a sign of divine grace that Kreyszig's text was ever published. Kreyszig has no sense of how to present mathematics to a student -- neither theory nor application. Often, he will incoherently present the theory, and then present a problem set whose problems can only be solved by someone with prior experience (this problem is particularly acute in the chapter on Linear Algebra). Again and again, Kreyszig offers an incomplete proof of a theorem and then assigns problems on it, effectively compromising both theory and application. As for the Opeartional Calculus, I am sure Laplace and Heaviside are turning in their graves. This book is a particularly keen example of the adage, "Textbooks start bad and get worse." My reccommendations: Leon Mirsky's Test "Linear Algebra" and Harry M. Schey's "Div, Grad, Curl and All That" for Vector Calculus.
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