The thing about graph theory (and combinatorics more generally, although it's especially true for graph theory) is that the basic definitions are very simple, and there is a lot of interesting math you can do without using anything but the basics.
As such, there's really only a limited benefit to just reading a text -- if you want to learn the subject, you have to have to have to do problems. Of the textbooks mentioned, I personally own Diestel (free online edition) and Bollobas; of these two, Bollobas has more and better exercises (although Diestel's a wonderful reference, and has the advantage of including hints.)
Honestly, I think the really important thing when teaching/learning graph theory is for the lecturer to know what he or she is doing. Obviously some books are better than others, but none of them are very good if they're not being used correctly.
No comments:
Post a Comment