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Rating: 
Summary: This book is as worthless as it is expensive
Review: I taught a discrete math course in a major US university based on this book. Having been adopted by most US universities over the years, there was no choice. There is no clear line of exposition in this book. Knowing what it should be about, it is repulsive to see how unstructured the content is, and how truly beautiful mathematics is made ugly beyond recognition. There exist far more insightful and shorter proofs than many of those given here. Instead of developing a choice of key topics cleanly, transparently, and in detail, a large collection of loosely related facts are glued together in a supremely uninspired way. Some topics which are far too advanced for this level of exposition are mentioned over several pages, without any rigorous treatment, of course, while many important topics are left away that could have been included. The elegance quotient of this book is zero. Students should learn how to present a proof. They should learn to pin down the key ideas, and to write a proof in the clearest and most transparent language as possible. Whoever takes this text as her/his stylistic guide will do her/himself great harm. I am a research mathematician. It is my job to know precisely what good mathematics looks like, and also to know when something smells really bad. Believe me, this one smells beyond rotten. There are beautiful treatises on the same material on the internet, and one may also look at a small book for roughly 10 $ by Balakrishnan, from Dover publishers (available on Amazon, "Introductory discr math"). It doesn't contain as much material, but is so much more worth the money. A diligently made choice of topics is presented in clear, concise words that are to the point. There is also the book by Laszlo Lovasz, a master of the field. The clarity, inspiration and transparence of the exposition is absolutely exemplary. The paperback version costs around 35$ on Amazon. If you read those texts, you will understand what Johnsonbaugh is trying to put into clumsy words, illiterate proofs, boring examples, and silly pictures. What really hurts me is to see students, some of whom are not rich, paying 100 $ for this convoluted mess. My main message to every student using Mr. Johnsonbaugh's oeuvre is: If you don't understand this mess, it may be because you have mathematical talent. Go and look for a better, cheaper text. Save your time, it's not worth trying to figure out what the author intends to say.
Rating: 
Summary: Par Exposition and Expensive
Review: I used this book for a one semester course on discrete mathematics. First for the bad points: This book is unnecessarily expensive. 1/3 of almost every page is left blank and has unnecessary text and pictures. If there is one thing a poor college student doesn't need is an expensive book. I've read through the majority of the reviews here. Most of them stress that the book is difficult to follow. Indeed, some proofs and examples are difficult to follow (unless you have the intuition of a genius). The author's exposition of the material is not bad, but not good either. I'm currently trying to solve some of the more interesting problems in the book from each chapter. I must say though, some problems are INCREDIBLY challenging. I've been through many instances where I've required outside help to solve some problems. Conclusion: I don't recommend buying this book. It's too expensive and its exposition of the subject is at most average.
Rating:
Summary: Nasty
Review: This book is a required text used by the university I attend in an introductory discrete mathematics subject. I had little to no difficulty following the notes given during lectures, but when I wanted to brush up on/practice certain topics I found this book to be nothing more than confusing. I can only recommend buying a supplementary text if you find yourself doing a course on this topic and this being the required text.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for those not very mathematically inclined human beings
Review: This is the worst math book I have ever had to read and I am a 4.0 student in math. The author throws letters of the alphabet around like confetti in his examples-first it's x and midway through the explanation it is f. Had to have it for a class. Good thing the instructor was easy and the quizzes were open book so I could look in the index since I didn't learn a thing-and yes, I DID study it!
Rating:
Summary: "Distastefull" Mathematics
Review: This textbook is good at explaining easy concepts like graphing, tree traversals, and simple algorithms. While I'm not knocking this fact, these things are so easy to understand you can pick them up using Google. Unfortunately, when it comes down to advanced topics of discrete math, the book is terribly weak. By advanced topics, I mean things that you'll likely encounter in computer science theory. This is essentially what discrete math is for, so this is important. The discussions on recursion, analysis of computational complexity, recurrence relations, and especially proof by contradiction and induction are all too short, too abrupt, and too weak. Though examples are provided, they are too simple and do little to bring you to actual understanding of these difficult concepts. There are titanic tracts about cycles, paths, and all sorts of algorithms to deal with these. While interesting and often useful, this isn't what I was looking for. The author should really have focused more on the discrete math, leaving the interesting algorithms to data structure textbooks. I should probably note here that I've already learned all of this material and was using this book as a reference. Even then, it was still difficult to figure out what the author was doing! I wouldn't even recommend the text to someone intending to use it purely for review, and would warn those with no knowledge of the subject to steer well clear.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh.
Review: Warning!!! If you are trying to LEARN discrete math, buy a different book. It it is for class, MAKE SURE YOU GET A SUPPLEMENT BOOK. There are a couple of paperback books that can help. Unfortunatly the Author is also a Professor at my University, so buying it is a requirement.
-*- Excercises only have a hand full of answers, not every odd like every other math book.
-*- No detailed answers (working out excersise problems)
-*- Teaching examples may not apply to exercise problems.
-*- Overall, most confusing math (or any grad or undergrad level class) book I have used
Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: Why must so many universities foist this abomination upon their CS students as a required text? Is there really nothing better available, or does Johnsonbaugh possess incriminating photos of every school's Dean of ENGR in the country? This is, without a doubt, the WORST textbook I have EVER encountered -- in any subject. It might qualify as the worst textbook OF ALL TIME. Yes, it's really that horrible. It's verbose. It's dull. Many of the examples are longer than necessary (and more than occasionally, misleading). Like many texts on this topic, it features Solutions to Selected Exercises in the back, but what's the point in displaying the final answer to an involved problem if you don't demonstrate how you arrived at it? If you're going to print an answer, PLEASE provide us with the COMPLETE answer. I have searched (largely in vain) for another text or two to use as study aids. If you're thinking about Schaum's, hang onto your money (Note to Schaum's: Why publish a separate book of "Solved Problems" if you're merely recycling the same examples from the Outlines book?). Susanna S. Epp's textbook is much better in most places -- most notably the section on graphs. Bottom line: if your school adopts Johnsonbaugh as the required text for your course, hang onto your money and rely on your lecture notes. This book is a waste of trees.
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