Easy to read partial differential equations book?

Question

I'm looking for an easy to read undergraduate book on partial differential equations, ideally something that is not much harder than a multivariable calculus/ordinary differential equations book.

I am preparing for a course which is using the text by Walter Strauss, but I found this text a bit difficult to read. Specifically, I found that many of the derivations were missing steps that were not obvious to me or provided little justification for the manipulations. When I searched for introductory books however the Strauss book seems to be recommended.

Google seems to recommend, among others:

• Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers by Farlow
• Introduction to Partial Differential Equations by Peter Olver

I have ruled out:

• Partial Differential Equations: An Introduction by Walter Strauss
• An Introduction to Partial Differential Equations by Michael Renardy
• Partial Differential Equations by Fritz John
• Partial Differential Equations by Lawrence C Evans

My background is having read A First Course in Differential Equations with Modelling Applications by Dennis Zill. Would I be better off reading the extended version of this book (Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems)? I was a little bit hesitant because I was not sure how relevant the book is to PDEs. The chapters I have not read are Fourier Series, Boundary Value Problems in Rectangular Coordinates, Boundary Value Problems in Other Coordinate Systems, Integral Transforms and Numerical Solutions of Partial Differential Equations.

EDIT: I ended up finishing about half the book, which is everything covered in my course, Chapters 1 through 7.

Answer 1

Personally I am quite fond of Evan's Partial differential equations as an introductory textbook.

I would not expect to find something really "easy to read", though, simply because the subject matter tends not be all that easy.

Answer 2

I agree with the advice to continue with the Zill book, and to fill in steps in math books such as Strauss, but if you want something really easy, I have some lecture notes on differential equations at http://bterrell.net that introduce various topics in ODE and PDE by focusing on some applications.

Answer 3

For undergraduate level, the book "Partial Differential Equations An Introduction" by Walter A. Strauss is decent and is highly recommended