Advanced Formal logic / Automata Theory textbook

Question

I know this is more a Math/Formal Language/Automata/Computer science question than an a programming one, but I hope I can get some advice on a comprehensible textbook (not an indecipherable monograph) on formal logic beyond Propositional and Predicate Calculus. I’m especially interested in monadic second order logic and Büchi Automata.

For now, I’ve only found Automata theory and its applications by Bakhadyr Khoussainov, Anil Nerode. Automata, logics, and infinite games By Erich Grädel, Thomas Wilke (eds). And Formal Models of Communicating Systems: Languages, Automata, and Monadic Second-Order Logic Benedikt Bollig....Way over my head.

Answer 1

So this is the best curriculum I can come with :

For Beginners in Logic :

Peter J. Cameron, Sets, Logic and Categories, Springer, Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series, 1999, URL.

James L. Hein, Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009 (3th ed) URL.

Logic for the computer scientist.

For Beginners in Automata and Formal Langugage :

Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Course Technology, 2005 (2nd), URL.

and

Alan P. Parkes, Introduction to Languages, Machines, and Logic, Springer, 2002.

and

Peter Linz, An introduction to formal languages and automata, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2000 (3 ed) URL.

and

John E. Hopcroft and Jeffrey D. Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation, Addison Wesley , 1979, (1st ed), ISBN : 0-201-02988-X; URL.

Intermediate level Logic (undergraduate):

D. Ebbinghaus , Mathematical Logic, Springer, URL.

or

Elliott Mendelson, Introduction to Mathematical Logic, URL

Advanced level (Graduate):

Wolfgang Thomas, Languages, Automata and Logic, 1996.

Leoni Libkin, Elements of Finite Model Theory, Springer, 2004, URL, TOC.

For Research

Benedikt Bolli, Formal models of communicating systems, Springer, 2006, URL.

Grädel, Erich; Thomas, Wolfgang; Wilke, Thomas (Eds.), Automata, logics, and infinite games, Springer, 2002, URL,

Answer 2

I've heard good things about Michael Sipser's Introduction to the Theory of Computation. I actually have it right in front of me, although I haven't started reading it yet.