I am looking for a modern treatment of transcendental functions with an emphasis on difficult calculations similar to the classic text by Whittaker and Watson (now over 100 years old)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson
I have trouble following their exposition and I think a text written in the last 30-40 years would be useful. Unfortunately I have trouble finding one that puts as much emphasis on actually doing difficult calculations. My interests are in mathematical physics and I would like much deeper treatment of Orthogonal Polynomials, Bessel Functions, Gamma Function, Zeta Function, etc. from a calculational viewpoint than what is provided in standard math for physics texts like Boas, etc.
I don't see what is wrong with that suppressed answer. I like that book.
Anyway, if you go to Amazon and enter "Special functions", you get a number of good answers (including the suggested one). Some of them are available for Kindle, though you need to check the preview because sometimes Amazon garbages the math.
Here are some of them:
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Functions-Scientists-Engineers-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B00DLYUOBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-1&keywords=special+functions
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Functions-Their-Applications-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B00CWR4P9G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-2&keywords=special+functions
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Functions-Encyclopedia-Mathematics-Applications/dp/0521789885/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-3&keywords=special+functions
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Functions-Graduate-Cambridge-Mathematics/dp/052119797X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-4&keywords=special+functions
https://www.amazon.com/Functions-Orthogonal-Polynomials-Cambridge-Mathematics/dp/1107106982/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Functions-D-R-Guo/dp/997150667X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-5&keywords=special+functions
https://www.amazon.com/Computation-Special-Functions-Shanjie-Zhang/dp/0471119636/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1495669023&sr=8-6&keywords=special+functions