TITLE: What are the differences between Jacobson's "Basic Algebra" and "Lectures in Abstract Algebra"?
QUESTION [12 upvotes]: Nathan Jacobson's books "Basic Algebra I, II" and "Lectures in Abstract Algebra - Volumes I, II, III (GTM 30, 31, 32)". What are the differences between these two books? 
1) The subject.
The material of the two books overlap, which one is better? 
2) Does "Lectures in Abstract Algebra" aim to undergraduate?
3) "Basic Algebra I, II" Cannot edit a word! Really?
4) Is it necessary to read the two books?
Thanks a lot!

REPLY [2 votes]: I second Mathemagician1234's response. Lectures in Abs. Alg. were one of those wonderful old-school treatments in the spirit of Herstein's Topics in Algebra - elegantly readable and lacking in more modern tools like categories and functors. For those of us who've had trouble crossing that bridge, that can be a strength. On the other hand, Basic Alg. doesn't seem to use much in the way of homological methods until Vol. 2, and a glance there suggests that his introduction there is relatively chatty, example-driven, and user-friendly as usual.