<i>I don't think lack of realism is the worst thing about these types of problems. I think lack of fun is.</i><p>I can recommend an algebra textbook with fun. And it was written by a mathematician with rather better credentials (theorems that bear his name in higher mathematics) than most algebra textbook authors. The book is Algebra by Israel Gelfand and Alexander Shen<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773</a><p>I discovered the Gelfand-Shen textbook through Professor Richard Askey's review of that book.<p><a href="http://www.aft.org/publications/american_educator/fall99/amed1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.aft.org/publications/american_educator/fall99/ame...</a><p>Askey's review is actually a review of Ma Liping's book Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics that quotes a passage of Gelfand's book in a sidebar. I later saw a glowing description of Gelfand's books in the same series in a bibliography by a U of Chicago mathematics student.<p><a href="http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/chicmath.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/chicmath.htm</a><p>I use the Gelfand textbook to teach supplemental math lessons for gifted elementary-age students. They LOVE the Gelfand problems. They haven't even gotten to the really funny parts of the book yet, which such sections as "How to Confuse Students on an Exam." Gelfand's book(s) exemplify what you are looking for in math textbooks. Of course they are not used in very many public schools in the United States, nor in very many remedial college classes.