Rating: 
Summary: a pleasure to work with
Review: The nec plus ultra introductory discrete math book. It covers a wide range of subjects at just enough depth to keep things simple without being trivial, provides a wealth of interesting exercises from which one learns at least as much as from the text itself (get the solutions manual), is written by somebody who knows how to explain well, has historical depth (did you know that Paul Erdos had a problem with "bosses"? That Lewis Carroll had "friendships" with young Alices?) and overall is a pleasure to work with. A critique is that automata theory is only covered in the last chapter, almost like an afterthought. It would have been nice to have more of it. Using that book in the context of CS studies, the teacher in my university had to add automata theory from other sources to complement the program. Secure that one before going ahead with more advanced texts. Ah, and do ALL the exercises, they're the most valuable part of it. A definite five stars. People who didn't like that book must not have opened the others...
Rating: 
Summary: Instructive, informative and a wealth of information
Review: First some background: I'm not a math major or someone with a lot of experience in math. I can't speak about the usefulness or benefit of this book as an introduction to more advanced dicrete math topics because I've never studied anything more advanced. What I can tell you is that I used this book a couple of years ago when I returned to school after 20 years to finish my Bachelor's degree. I found the book useful and quite adequate to learn the basics of the subject, and this book was one of the reasons Discrete became my favorite math class. There is a ton of material packed in between the covers -- mathematics history, biographical sketches, spartan but helpful illustrations, web links, additional book and periodical resources -- everything you need to get through the course and more. Be warned though -- the first two or three chapters are kind of dry and difficult. Rosen explains things, but he doesn't spoon feed you. There's quite a bit of vocabulary and new ideas to digest; mathematical induction is just plain hard to understand in the beginning and it takes quite a while (and a lot of practice) to learn to construct well-formed proofs. Do yourself a favor and spend the extra money on the solution manual. What you don't understand just by reading the text is usually, though not always, made much clearer by working through the problems while reviewing the answers with the solution process laid out for you. WORK A LOT OF PROBLEMS. You will never really understand the concepts or retain the information without spending hours wrestling with this stuff. This isn't Art Appreciation 101 or Intro to Government. You're not going to grasp everything just by attending class and (maybe) reading the book. You've got to do some real analytical processing and wear out some erasers. You can fake your way through some classes, but this isn't one of them. Once you get through the first three chapters, the rest of the book goes much more smoothly. Maybe you're acclimated to the subject by this time and it just comes to you easier. If you're like me, you should really begin enjoying things at this time and seeing how this can actually be useful in terms of understanding computation and computer science. You also begin to appreciate the organizational and teaching style of the book. It progresses at a good pace, but provides enough intoductory information and exercises to keep you from feeling like a complete idiot once you reach the more advanced sections in the chapter. Sure, there are some rough spots and a few sections that you just have to re-read several times. This IS a math text -- you can't expect it to be a page-turner like a good novel. For those reviewers who think this book is too theoretical or too terse or just a pile of proofs thrown on top of each other, they need to open some of the other higher level math books out there. This book may not be perfect, but it was pure joy compared to my nightmare experience with numerical analysis (Numerical Analysis and Methods by Epperson). As for the cost, the book is way over-priced, but then what text book isn't? It just comes with the territory.
Rating:
Summary: A great introductory book
Review: I was impressed by the breadth and depth of the book. It starts off by building a thorough foundation, and goes on to cover important topics in discrete math - graph theory, cryptography and combinatorics. The author really shows you why the subject is relevant and makes it interesting. I was most impressed with the exercises which can really help you learn the subject. The historical and biographical material is a nice touch. This is the only good discrete math book I found after checking out at least half a dozen others.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Discrete Math book
Review: This is a very good book on Discrete Math. I have looked at several books and the only other book that comes close to quality is "Discrete Mathematics" by Hein.
To get the most out of this book it is recommended to get the solutions manual. Also the book's website has several useful worked out examples and links. Discrete Math is what computer science is all about and if you don't like Discrete Math then you should stay away from CS.
Rating:
Summary: Well I liked It
Review: The recommended text book for my discrete math course was something else, but based on (3 star) reviews here I got Rosen's book instead. What can I say... I am happy. So far I've got 99% in the first assignment, 100% in the second assignment, and 100% in the test. Obviously I'm a capable student already, but Rosen's book has been a great help. I like the layout, I like the explanations, I like the coverage. It's my favorite textbook. The class average is around 55%, so I guess the subject matter isn't easy. Maybe that's why many reviewers were frustrated into giving bad reviews. (I originally bought this book _because_ I couldn't find any books with better reviews, which suggests as much).
Rating: 
Summary: No beauty here
Review: On the surface this seems like a great book - all of the topics in a Discrete Mathematics course are covered, the information is cleanly laid out, and the quality of the binding is excellent. At closer observation, though, this book has some serious flaws that should keep it from being considered from any universitie's curriculum. Discrete math should be the class that introduces students to the beauty that can be found in math through proofs. Proofs are the foundation of mathematics and - especailly in an introductory text - should be comprehensive. This book leaves out important steps in a good deal of the proofs, making the proofs themselves hard to read. This should be an easy, clear class for anyone intrested in math. If you are struggling, you owe it to yourself to find a real text on proofs to see what mathematical beauty really is. My advise is - if you have to use this text - buy a good book on proofs and another good book on number theory. There are plenty on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The shipping was fast and the communication between seller was excellent and on time. The condition of the book was in great shape as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for reference, not for learning.
Review: I found this book effective for reviewing concepts I was already somewhat familiar with, but it was not very useful for learning concepts for the first time. Now that the class I used it for is over, I will probably keep the book and use it as a reference in the future.
Rating:
Summary: I failed my class because of this book
Review: I can not understand why our teacher decided to use this book?
i am very disappointed.
No one words...
Rating:
Summary: A Very Poor Text On Discrete Mathematics
Review: Any professor or department which recommends this book to students as the primary, or only text of the class is doing a dis-service to students. The text provides examples and explanations which are incomplete and contain errors. In many of the proofs, key steps are omitted by the author who takes for granted that students will know of his mistakes and make corrections. Any prospective students who see this book as the only text of a computer science discrete mathematics class, should imediately change from that class, saving themselves many hours of aggrevation.
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