This text covers topics in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra with a strong perspective toward practical and computational aspects. The first four chapters form the core of the book. A comprehensive chart in the Preface illustrates a variety of ways to proceed with the material once these chapters are covered. In addition to the fundamentals of algebraic geometry--the elimination theorem, the extension theorem, the closure theorem and the Nullstellensatz--this new edition incorporates several substantial changes, all of which are listed in the Preface. The largest revision incorporates a new Chapter (ten), which presents some of the essentials of progress made over the last decades in computing Gr