Could you list the "right" books. I am always looking for good books. I dabble in math study and would love to find something that could actually re-teach me math.
Most of the books I learned from are at least forty years out of print. There was a Modern Algebra Book One, and a Book Two just as good, one of the authors was Dolciani, but later editions or works by Dolciani I can't recommend---and the Geometry in the same series was crappe.
My favorite math book was written in the 1920's, my grandfather passed it on to me.
Ooh! There was the four-part World of Mathematics, sort of a math encylopedia. Not something that you read cover-to-cover, but it certainly helped relate math to the rest of human life! :) It was printed in the 1950's.
Also "The Mathematical Experience" by Phil Davis and Reuben Hersh was great.
My kid uses several math books, around an 8th-10th grade level. Heath Mathematics is excellent, authors Rucker, Dilley and Lowry, c 1987. And Pre-Algebra Mathematics by Gerald S. Lieblich, c 1973 by Bell and Howell. Great book, but none of the pretty pics you find in more recent works. Heath Mathematics is more colorful and touchy-feely.
And, in my opinion, math students should learn how to use an abacus and a slide rule. Also, nowadays hardly any math books give due attention to computation of degrees-minutes-seconds. For that matter, they give too little attention to computation in general. Math is like music, you have to practice.
And like with music, it is only an ordeal if you're practicing near an unappreciative audience. If you have a teacher who finds math fascinating, you will find math fascinating.
I had no teachers. But it would have been nice. My kids take learning like they were being handed precious gems, because that's the spirit in which I convey it, but I was a lone prospector in my time. :)