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Comment by richard_chase | Hacker News Reader

"Linear Algebra and Its Applications" by David Lay is the best introductory linear algebra textbook, hands down. Love it.

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I had this as my very first textbook in community college. Loved it!

I hear recommendations for this book all the time; I've cover-to-covered Strang several times and have digested maybe 20% of Axler (I just dip into random sections of LADR when something annoys me in a problem set or whatever), and I'm super curious why the aura on Lay's book is so positive.

(I don't doubt it at all! I'm just curious.)

As someone who's watched all Strang's lectures and read most of Axler's book, I found Linear Algebra and Its Applications to give the most interesting treatment on the topic. What made it so special was its clear explanations and the use cases it introduced.

The applications not only provided the context to get a deeper understanding of the concepts, it also made the math relevant to the real world. By showing a range of problems, from the chemical stoichiometry to the algorithmic SVD, it inspires the reader to look for more problems that can be solved with the toolset being introduced.

Lay explains things very clearly and it's very good for going back to when I need to review something. Lay covers all the foundational linear algebra topics you would need for say, ML or graphics programming. I found that roughly the first half of LADR felt like a review of what Lay covered.

You won't get anything new from Lay's book if you've done Strang. It is a basic textbook and doesn't cover anything advanced. It's just a good textbook.

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