Comments on: Ten Must Read Books about Mathematics

By: Person

Person — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:20:43 +0000

I am 12 and loved fermats last theorem. It was amazing. Thankyou for the list of books. I find that maths books for people of my age are dreary because they are sooooo easy. I am looking forward to reading the recommended books. Thanks again!!!

By: Jerry Lazar

Jerry Lazar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:26:17 +0000

Great list, but I have to add a vote for “The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan,” by Robert Kanigel — absorbing, inspiring, illuminating. Plus we must tip our hats to Martin Gardner, but so many titles to choose from!

By: Sue VanHattum

Sue VanHattum — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:57:46 +0000

I've got twelve over at Math Mama Writes, with almost no overlap with these lists. About half of mine are for young kids, though.

By: DN

DN — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:58:53 +0000

Courant, Robbins What is Mathematics
is the book which brought many excellent mathematicians to mathematics. It is intended for schoolchildren, but is interesting for students as well. But this is Math, not a book ABOUT Math.

By: Tom Hamilton

Tom Hamilton — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:32:15 +0000

I have found that DOING math is much more enlightening than reading ABOUT math. Just the same, these books are good. But I want to not lose sight of the fact that reading about it is no substitute for doing it.

By: Manjil P. Saikia

Manjil P. Saikia — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:23:06 +0000

1. Men of mathematics-E.T.Bell
2. The man who knew infinity- Robert Kanigal
3. A mathematician’s apology- G.H.Hardy
4. The Indian Clerk-David Leavitt

By: Rick Battams

Rick Battams — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:46:40 +0000

I’m very happy to have found this site. Yes, There are others like it, although there are many, many more that are not attractive and useful. So, It’s a bit of work finding sites that will lead one to enlightenment.

I am just now working on my GED. I didn’t get high school and working for less than a living wage (here in Toronto, Canada) and finding myself in Money Mart hell (payday lender), is causing me to kind of go crazy. I’m flailing around trying to shake up my life but there’s not much I can do about it now. It’s not easy to get anywhere when you don’t even have a credit card or high school and you’re over 50!

I was a little embarrassed when, today, I found interesting books on math in the library – reading, I have no problem with – and then when I went to check them out I was told I couldn’t. They were reference works. I also hated the few minutes I spent in this library. My gosh it’s stuffy! I was afraid to turn pages or unzip my backpack to get my pen out to write down book titles for fear of disturbing all the deathly silent readers. I can’t read in such an environment. Problem is, I can’t afford to buy books either. But I see there are online freebies (like Flatland, recommended by a few folks here:
(http://xahlee.org/flatland/index.html). And I will still buy the odd book.

Thanks a million to the site author ‘and’ to the posters here who have provided so many helpful ideas. Between you folks, and the friendly fellow wage slave, and actuarial science student, I work with (without whom I would be miserable as I try to grasp the basics of math), I’m in good shape to go forward on this learning adventure.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:20:42 +0000

How about

“Principles of mathematical analysis” By Walter Rudin.

Great story there.

By: Dr. William Fusfield

Dr. William Fusfield — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:53:14 +0000

My all time favorite, by far, is Rudy Rucker’s classic account of transfinite numbers, i.e. the infinite variety of different kinds of infinite numbers, which truly bowled me over when I first read it, and I already knew quite a bit about many of the topics the book discusses! It is entitled “Infinity and the Mind” and came out first around 1982, if I remember correctly. It is truly the single BEST introduction to transfinite set theory ever written, and I have read a ton of them, so I think I know what I am talking about, at least until you get deep into the model theory stuff. “Everything and More” by the up-and-coming young writer who tragically recently killed himself, “David Wallace Foster” or something similar may be his name, — unfortunately, when I hit 50, all of a sudden all proper names started to get fuzzy on me, a rather disturbing, though hardly uncommon, experience for one who always had a really good memory for names before — is also quite good, but nothing ranks with Rucker’s masterpiece. ALL of Rucker’s many non-fiction books on science, computational theory, fractals and algorithms, and math and pyhysics in general, are excellent and well worth reading. He is a truly rare and gifted scholar, and a fine expositor to all who have some university-level background in such topics as well. [His fiction I haven't read, but it is gaining in popularity, so it must be pretty good as well.] If you already know a good deal about transfinite numbers and set theory, the best introduction to Cantor’s own discoveries, and struggles with, all of these marvelous new infinite sets is called “Cantorian Set Theory and the Limitation of Size,” but it is getting quite rare, and requires a fairly good, roughly graduate mathematics level, grasp of the key concept at the outset. I hope that inspires someone to check out or buy the rucker book. Buy it in hardback. You will refer back to it often and the paperback is not sturdy enough to take multiple readings and notations etc..

By: ashwin paul

ashwin paul — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:08:58 +0000

all these books sound great.
i messed up math real bad back in school
i consider physics to be an amazing subject
but i lack the math skills.
i live in india .so getting my hands on these books might be difficult.
anyone out there who knows where i can get some of these books in bangalore.
greatly apreciate it
thanx