What are good books to learn graph theory?
What are some of the best books on graph theory, particularly directed towards an upper division undergraduate student who has taken most the standard undergraduate courses? I'm learning graph theory as part of a combinatorics course, and would like to look deeper into it on my own. Thank you.
$\endgroup$16 Answers
$\begingroup$Try Bondy and Murty, Graph Theory. The previous version, Graph Theory with Applications, is available online.
$\endgroup$ 0 $\begingroup$Diestel's Graph Theory (which has a "free preview" online) is presented as a graduate textbook, but it does not really have any prerequisites.
It goes quite deep in some parts, and includes material (such as the chapter on the graph minor theorem) that you won't find in other textbooks. Some proofs have a sort of "how would someone ever think of that?" feel, but this may have been remedied in the fourth edition (I have the third).
$\endgroup$ 3 $\begingroup$Doug West, Introduction to Graph Theory. Rigorous but readable, proof based rather than simply descriptive, but the proofs are explanatory rather than simply justification of truth (by any arbitrary means). Even so may not be the best total beginner's book.
$\endgroup$ 2 $\begingroup$The best introduction I could recommend for truly beginners is not a whole book on graph theory but A Walk Through Combinatorics, from Miklos Bona it has a large part of the book devoted to graph theory, from the very basics up to some intro to Ramsey theory
$\endgroup$ 1 $\begingroup$I learned graph theory from the inexpensive duo of Introduction to Graph Theory by Richard J. Trudeau and Pearls in Graph Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction by Nora Hartsfield and Gerhard Ringel. Both are excellent despite their age and cover all the basics. They aren't the most comprehensive of sources and they do have some age issues if you want an up to date presentation, but for the basics they can't be beat.
There are lots of good recommendations here, but if cost isn't an issue, the most comprehensive text on the subject to date is Graph Theory And Its Applications by Jonathan Gross and Jay Yellen. This massive, beautifully written and illustrated tome covers just about everything you could possibly want to know about graph theory, including applications to computer science and combinatorics, as well as the best short introduction to topological graph theory you'll find anywhere. If you can afford it, I would heartily recommend it. Seriously.
$\endgroup$ 2 $\begingroup$I enjoyed Alan Tucker's Applied Combinatorics. It's split into two sections:
- Graph Theory
- Combinatorics
The first half covers things like coloring theorems, cycles, and all that stuff. The second half is all about generating functions, counting sets, etc.
I found the book to be pretty readable. There are a lot of problems to work, which was nice.
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$Pearls in Graph Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction by Nora Hartsfield and Gerhard Ringel.
I used this book to teach a course this semester, the students liked it and it is a very good book indeed. The book includes number of quasiindependent topics; each introduce a brach of graph theory. It avoids tecchnicalities at all costs. I would include in the book basic results in algebraic graph theory, say Kirchhoff's theorem, I would expand the chapter on algorithms, but the book is VERY GOOD anyway.
P.S. See my "extra pearls" on github or at arXiv.
$\endgroup$ 1 $\begingroup$graph theory by Narsingh Deo, PHI publication.
$\endgroup$ 0 $\begingroup$I like Bollobás's Modern Graph Theory in the Springer GTM series. It is a bit dense, but worth chewing on.
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$You might find Graph Algorithms / Shimon Even interesting. Although it might probably hard to obtain.
Edit: You can get some of the chapters here.
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$Graph and Digraphs, 5th edition, by Chartrand, Lesniak, and Zhang. It is a graduate level text and gives a good introduction to many different topics in graph theory.
$\endgroup$ 2 $\begingroup$I have used Diestel's Graph Theory book mainly, but I found extremely helpful video lectures by professor L. Sunil Chandran from IISc Bangalore (here and here).
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$For advanced readers,
Graph Theory by Frank Harary
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$I've enjoyed Introduction to Graph Theory by Wilson. Older version can be obtained for less than $5.
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$Here is Vadim Lozin's graph theory course. (Available for free from university of Warwick website )
It starts from scratch and most of theorems are prooved. I think it's pretty clear with many content.
It's not a book, but i hope it can help you.
$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$Graph Theory: Modeling, Applications, and Algorithms by Geir Agnarsson and Raymond Greenlaw is a really good book. see this discussion for reference.
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