Some other GR textbooks

Hi all

Following a question during the opening lecture, here are some recommendations for resources for GR. 

Two introductory books that you may find helpful to use in conjunction with Carroll are A First Course in General Relativity (2nd ed.) by Bernard Schutz as well as Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell by Anthony Zee. 

Schutz is the other ''standard'' intro to GR book. His style is very clear and easy to follow. However, it is occasionally too introductory (the book grew out of undergrad notes, so the level is pitched accordingly). It covers the same content as Carroll, and in the same order. If a section in Carroll isn't making sense, sometimes swapping over to Schutz and back to Carroll may help. 

Zee is easily the best textbook writer I've read; but, the pleasantness of his style aside, his GR book is unorthodox. Some rather important sections in Carroll are otherwise absent from Zee or left until much later in the book. But if you can use it effectively, it's a gem of a book.

Beyond books, David Tong also has some excellent lecture notes -- http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/gr/gr.pdf. I haven't looked at his GR notes in too much detail, but I discovered his notes when I was learning string theory and they are superb. I imagine his GR ones are of similarly high quality. A word of caution: they are notes, not a textbook, so they lack in detail somewhat. 

It goes without saying that none of these should replace Carroll -- the course follows Carroll! -- but hopefully these may help in understanding the material. GR is a hard subject, and different people learn in different ways, so if you find the explanation in one resource isn't working for you, always look for alternatives! 

Jake