I noticed this when I was in College Algebra I last semester. I would take notes on the professor’s lectures, and then I would do the homework problems. If I needed a refresher lesson, I would look at the book, but the book did try to make the problem-solving harder than it needed to be. I’m not sure why, though. If I was self-teaching myself the material, I could see where one could get completely lost.
Stewart’s Calculus may not be to your liking, but it’s silly to call it a convoluted piece of garbage. It’s one of the most highly regarded introductory calculus texts for a reason…because people like it. Students tend to find it clear and well structured, with a good mix of rigor and practicality, making it appealing to both the math majors and the non-math majors alike. There are a lot of tools available for learning calculus today, but in my experience, most of the online resources (Khan Academy etc.) do not do a very good job of developing it. They tend to focus more on the mechanical methods of solving the problems, without really discussing what the math actually means.
Personally, I used Larson’s Calculus for calculus I and II, and I’m currently using it for calculus III. I’ve found that to be be an excellent book as well. There are a couple of areas in which it lacks, but overall it’s had a good level of rigor. There are some proofs that I wish it had included, but they were easy to find elsewhere. I’m one of those people that love math though.
Here is a free calculus book if you find the one assigned for your class to be not to your liking:
http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/
@comfortablycurt
One of people behind the Larson Calculus book is Bruce H. Edwards.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/bruce-h-edwards/
He has a full sequence on Calc 1-3 along with Pre-Calc and an intro to mathematical proofs. It’s not a coincidence that you enjoy his textbook and I enjoy his lectures. Yes lectures, not the simple steps to solve math problems of PatrickJMT. Although I like PatrickJMT as well.
My honors calculus math professor (Berkeley Ph.D) can’t stand Stewart either and instead uses Spivak along with Haas. Stewart isn’t rigorous and the difficulty in that textbook lies in the convoluted nature. In short it isn’t well regarded by even serious math majors.
@preamble1776
Unfortunately most college math professors suck and the textbooks they use further complicate the class. For calc 1-3 I recommend watching the videos I linked above. Those courses by Bruce Edwards are worth their weight in gold.