2026 07 23

I wish I could have a gap year to read through The Rising Sea: Foundations of Algebraic Geometry before becoming a sophomore student.

It’s a really remarkable book for A.G. self-learning – the book is self-contained, i.e. any concepts and conclusions mentioned in the context will be taught within the textbook. Hence you won’t be struggling to search for an appropriate reference in order to learn those prerequisites.

You know, one can easily be stuck at some improperly hard or off-topic books & sites to learn a certain topic. For instance, the last time I learnt algebraic varieties with Algebraic Geometry - Hartshorne ended up with reading Commutative Algebra - M.Atiyah to supply my C.A. prerequisite.

In spite of such advantage, let’s address the elephant in the room: it’s freaking thick! The July 27 2024 draft version, which is the version that I’ve been reading, has 850 pages in total… I do want to read it through, but if I really do so, I won’t have enough time to catch up the progress in my A.G. seminar and finishing my undergraduate course with a decent GPA.

The fact is: Despite being a pure math student, I cannot get any major-credits from reading such book, simply because our school don’t have courses at such level or reading programs for undergraduate students to do. Equivalently, I’ll be PUNISHED for spending such time which I ought to use to “learn” my undergraduate courses – those which I finished several years ago, and I don’t think anyone would want to review subjects like mathematical analysis over and over again, what a shame.