Abbott's _Understanding Analysis_

It's true.  I should have bought this book months ago.  Stephen Abbott's Understanding Analysis almost reads like a novel.  Well, not really, but compared to Wade's An Introduction to Analysis - and especially Rudin - it sure does.

I'm reading it and it ACTUALLY explains how to construct a proof, in English, and why you'd want to do it in the first place.  It has all the "why's" that I've been asking and not understanding - why do we care about Cantor sets?  Why do we bother to write proofs about sequences and series?  Who were the mathematicians who came up with these ideas and what kind of obstacles did they face along the way?

If Rudin makes me feel like an imbecile, and Wade makes me feel lost, Abbott makes me feel mildly intelligent again - and even more so, interested and curious.  Abbott does an excellent job of making me motivated to study again.  I saw reviews for this book and almost bought it months ago.  Now that I've checked it out from the library, I really regret not doing so.  It's not a reference book - it's more of a "how-to" for the beginning student... exactly what I need.  Now, alas, it's only two weeks till finals, but hopefully the second time around with this material, I will understand the things I missed the first time around.