by Timothy Gowers
ISBN: 0192853619
Buy on Amazon
Found in 2 comments on Hacker News
tokenadult · 2011-12-11 · Original thread
In general I find the techniques easier to understand and remember when I've got a good understanding of what they should be used for, alas my teachers tend to gloss over the why and focus on the how.

Several authors I can recommend who write good expository books on mathematics to explain the why are

Ian Stewart

John Stillwell

Keith Devlin

William Dunham

Timothy Gowers has a book about mathematics in the Very Short Introduction series

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Short-Introduction-Timothy...

that should be helpful to you.

On the particular subject you are studying right now, see if Hubbard and Hubbard's book Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Forms: A Unified Approach

http://matrixeditions.com/UnifiedApproach4th.html

helps your understanding.

GrangalanJr · 2011-07-17 · Original thread
Here are some nice introductory ones:

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Tim Gowers): http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Short-Introduction-Timothy...

The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible (Keith Devlin): http://www.amazon.com/Language-Mathematics-Making-Invisible-...

What is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods (Richard Courant): http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-...

They give brief but interesting glimpses into several areas of higher math, so they could help you decide what you want to pursue in more depth.