# References for spectral measures

I am trying to learn a little bit about the spectral theory of unbounded operators but the textbook we are using (Birman and Solomyak: Spectral theory of Self-Adjoint Operators in a Hilbert Space) is a little bit heavy going for me. Is there a "gentler" book to learn about these things?

Thank you.

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Have you learned about the spectral theory of bounded operators? For those not familiar with Birman and Solomyak or your background, could you please elaborate a little on what would help make a book "gentle" enough in this context? –  Jonas Meyer Nov 11 '11 at 2:51
I'll just briefly add a comment (because I cannot tell if it will be helpful) that I like Conway's treatment in section X.4 of A course on functional analysis. It builds on some previous results, including the spectral theory of bounded normal operators from Chapter IX. –  Jonas Meyer Nov 11 '11 at 2:58
Thanks for your comments. I don't fully understand the bounded case( i.e I am just beginning to study functional analysis and perhaps should get back to this topic a bit later). I will check out Conway's book. Thanks for the reference pointer. I suppose my question can be paraphrased as follows: is there another book that discusses spectral measures and the spectral theorem based on the spectral measure's and projection valued functions. Thanks. –  Shibi Vasudevan Nov 11 '11 at 22:07