The following is an emended excerpt from my [answer](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/13/learning-about-lie-groups/29458#29458) to a related question<sup>1</sup> about books about Lie groups for someone with algebraic geometry background. I might add that Procesi's book ideally fits your goals, since you are also interested in representation theory. >For someone with algebraic geometry background, I would heartily recommend Procesi's *Lie groups: An approach through invariants and representations.* It is masterfully written, with a lot of explicit results, and covers a lot more ground than Fulton and Harris. If you like "theory through exercises" approach then Vinberg and Onishchik, *Lie groups and algebraic groups* is very good (the Russian title included the word "seminar" that disappeared in translation). >If you aren't put off by a bit archaic notation and language, vol 2 of Chevalley's *Lie groups* is still good. --- <sup>1</sup>That question is exactly one year old and, according to Anton's [MO birthday post](http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/684/happy-birthday-mo/#Item_1) on meta, was the second "real" question asked on Mathoverflow.