study topology: homotopy and homology I want to study the basis of topology. I know functional analysis and very basic topology. I need to learn about homologies and homotopies but it seems that all the books (mostly of Russian authors) that I've found do not explain everything in detail and don't bring many examples so that it would be easy to understand. 
Can anyone suggest me a good 'heavy' and intelligible book to begin with?
 A: There is an Algebraic Topology Book by James R Munkres other than the only Topology by the same author, I suggest you to start  reading fundamental group from the Topology book and then   read  upto chapter 13th, then start from the Algebraic topology book by the same author where he explained everything in an interactive way with the reader I found it nice for the first reading, then you can look on James W Vick, allan hatcher, spaniers book also. good luck
A: My book Topology and Groupoids (available on amazon)  covers  results related to general notions of homotopy, does no homology, but is the only topology  text in English which uses  the notion of the fundamental groupoid $\pi_1(X,A)$ on a set $A$ of base points, thus allowing a version of the Seifert-van Kampen theorem which computes the fundamental group of the circle, and much more. It also uses groupoids for a base point free approach to covering spaces, and gives  results on orbit spaces and orbit groupoids not available elsewhere. 
Here is a link to an MAA review:
http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/19/?pa=reviews&sa=viewBook&bookId=69421 
