What is a good book to learn all of precalculus? I need a no-fluff book with great exposition on precalculus. It should cover up intermediate algebra, trigonometry and anything else needed to get a strong preparation for Spivak's Calculus. It shouldn't contain annoying images or anything agitating, just serious math. But above all things, it should be very comprehensive and rigorous.  It should help me to understand the concepts, and not just memorize them like we're supposed to do with most American textbooks...
 A: What you want are Gelfand's books: Algebra, Trigonometry, Functions and Graphs, and The Method of Coordinates. It is a shame these books are not better known and used.
Axler has a book on precalculus, but it is far more boring and typical than Gelfand's.
Simmons also has a lovely little book, Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell. 
A: If you want to study trigonometry and algebra rigorously then go for S.L Loney trigonometry and Hall & Knight.For calculus Thomas Calculus is the best. Everything is included, including some precalculus needed for calculus, in it so you don't have to search anywhere else. I would personally suggest that for precalculus go for Khan academy because explanations there are sometimes better than books. 
A: When I was studying precalculus, I found a free book, completely typeset in $\LaTeX$ that I think suits what you want. There are a total of zero annoying images and silly graphics and absolutely all topics are discussed very carefully and thoroughly. The book is Precalculus by Carl Stitz and Jeff Zeager, and you can find them here: http://www.stitz-zeager.com/
The book has hundreds of exercises, most of them are trivial and mechanical in nature, designed to be solved in something like 3-5 minutes each. Their purpose is to get you used to calculating things, and calculating fast. Then, there are the more advanced problems which will require some thinking.
Another book that I imagine must be very good is Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics. Lang is a great and famous author and you might just want to use his Calculus textbook to study Calculus after studying Basic Mathematics.
