 I'm willing to bet that the calculus students at just about any college are going to be carrying a thick calculus textbook That's supposed to last them for one two or three semesters That kind of textbook is not the kind of textbook that I think is best My favorite calculus textbook is the street wise guide. Don't mistake the cartoons for lack of rigor This book covers the concepts that you need to know for calculus one and it does it very well It has a section at the beginning that gets you caught up in what you need to know before diving into calculus It has the standard limit definition of the derivative as well as other notations for derivatives And it also has some of the clearest sections on integrals that I've ever seen the visuals are simple and effective in your college Courses you will likely have a big heavy calculus textbook, but in my opinion This is just as good if not better than many of the other texts. I've seen on college campuses