Introductory Group Theory Book Recommendation I am looking for an introductory book on group theory as I would like to know more about the subject. I am aware that this an extremely useful area of mathematics. What book would you suggest for a first course on group theory?
 A: A Book of Abstract Algebra, by Charles C. Pinter, is famous for being clear, accessible, and doing a lot of hand-holding.
A: Contemporary Abstract Algebra by Joseph Gallian
is written especially for beginners which is full of motivations- motivations for the subject, motivations for a topic, motivations behind a theorem, motivations for exercises, etc.
The exercises range from very elementary to difficult. They always keep the beginner-reader in touch with the subject.
A: Visual Group Theory is full of motivation and illustrated examples, and comes with a companion interactive tool Group Explorer.
A: If you want a leisurely pace, try Budden's The Fascination of Groups.
A: You might find it to your benefit to go a more concrete route with these very detailed notes on permutation puzzles-
http://www.sfu.ca/~jtmulhol/math302/notes/302notes.pdf
You could alternatively try Visual Group Theory by Nathan Carter, but it may need more care than you might at first expect.
Also, if you don't mind video lectures, here's a more traditional course- http://wayback.archive-it.org/3671/20150528171650/https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/abstract-algebra
A: Abstract algebra - Herstein is good to start in groups, it starts with basic previous requeriments and has a lot of good examples and exercises that helps to discover the next themes, it has 3 levels of problems, start with 1,2 difficult level problems and you'll be ok.
Algebra-Serge Lang, ed.Springer is a complete book for Algebra for people who know some algebra from before , also if you read some spanish, there are some  easy and complete free books of algebra. Look for "algebra-Carlos Ivorra Castillo" (oriented to number theory) or "cuadernos de algebra- Oswaldo Lezama" with a google search (more general, there are 10 books which takes since groups to homological algebra).
