MA40040 reading list

There are no books that you must read but here is a selection of tomes that you might find helpful.

• Algebraic topology: a first course by M.J. Greenberg and J.R. Harper (516.12 GRE).
  This is my favourite of the lot but is rather steep: it covers moreorless the entire unit in about 9 pages!

• Fundamental groups and covering spaces by E.L. Lima (516.12 LIM).
  This is a new book that really covers most of the course at a nice level. Lots of good exercises as well.

• Topology (Second Edition) by J.F. Munkres (516.11 MUN).br/> Chapters 9 and 13 are particularly relevant but the rest of the book is a good, cultural read.

• Algebraic topology: an introduction by W.S. Massey (516.12 MAS).
  Chapters 2 and 5 are pretty relevant.

• Algebraic topology: a first course by W. Fulton (516.12 FUL).
  A nice book by an excellent author with a somewhat different focus. There are a couple of chapters in the middle that cover much of the course.

• Basic topology by M.A. Armstrong (516.11 ARM).
  This is a good background read.

It is also worth having a browse through the 516.12 section of the library shelves. You are looking for keywords like fundamental group and covering space on the contents page. If you find anything really helpful let me know.