Friar Bellows

A lot of you probably read popular-level books about cosmology, AI, string theory and other sexy topics, but how many of you read popular level books about mathematics?

Almost anything mathematical by Martin Gardner (mostly what you might call recreational mathematics) is fun to read (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393020231/" target="_blank">The Colossal Book of Mathematics</a>). Ian Stewart has come out with some excellent books (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486284247/" target="_blank">Concepts of Modern Mathematics</a>). I just can't get enough of Raymond Smullyan (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0139550887/" target="_blank">What Is The Name Of This Book?</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192821962/" target="_blank">Forever Undecided: A Puzzle Guide to Gödel</a>).

I'm probably missing some obvious ones. Add them here if you want.

Christopher Lord

I'm reading one right now, actually. Reading an interesting book on Fermat's last (Its still packed so no title or author is forthcoming ). A nice history of the failures of various prominent math guys.

I actually understand some of that stuff in the apendixes too. I never actually comprehended the proof for Pythag's theorum till I read this book.

I'll be sure to check out more suchlike books in the future. I am not disapointed at all.

Friar Bellows

Which proof of Pythagoras' theorem was it? There's some large number of them and there's a book that collects as many of them as possible (forget the title). In fact former US President Garfield invented one such proof, starting from the formula for trapizoidal area. The last proof I read recently was the one in Euclid's Elements - the "windmill construction". Did you know that Lincoln used to read Euclid's Elements in his spare time?

I wonder what George W. reads?

Tharmas

I’ve read quite a few over the years. One that stands out is Peter Beckman’s “History of Pi.” It’s as much history as math, and sometimes idiosyncratic at that, but a good deal of fun.

I have purchased but have not yet cracked Ifrah’s monumental “The Universal History of Numbers.” It promises an entry at my greatest level of interest, the rudiments of number theory.

One that takes a slightly different approach that I recently came across and found very interesting from a theoretical point of view is “The Universe and the Teacup” by K.C. Cole. This is not a “math book” in the sense of puzzles or equations but really a thoughtful exploration into the relationship between mathematics and reality.

beausoleil

I don't have it with me on my travels, but I recommend 'Innumeracy' by somebody whose name is something like Paulos. There was another called 'Beyond Numeracy' by the same guy.

Undercurrent

I'm quite fond of Aigner & Ziegler's "Proofs from the Book" but perhaps thats just me.

I also liked Clawson's "Mathematical Mysteries".

And while it's borderline mathematics, the "Feynman Lectures on Computation" (edited by Hey and Allen) contains quite a bit of good material on computer-science-y math (Turing machines, &c.)

m.

Steven S

I'm a great fan of biographies of mathematicians and they are often good places to learn a bit about mathematics too.
Although I can't remember the titles to all of these check out, Stan Ulam's autobiography (worked on the H-bomb + topology, logic, and many other things), Mark Kac's autobiography (probability, etc), Paul Erdos (number theory + combinatorics), John Nash's (game theory, manifold theory, etc) biography A Beautifull Mind is much better than the movie, von Neumann (mathematical beast), G.H. Hardy's autobiography, and Norbert Weiner's autobiography is good too.

Steven S

Christopher Lord

The one Pythagoras used, with the square and four triangles.

Friar Bellows

No, it's me, too. I've only borrowed it from the library for short periods of time. It's on my shortlist of books to get when I save up some money. Excellent collection of proofs, challenging, but at a level I can handle.

Friar Bellows

I read the biography called "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers".

Yes, better than the movie, but still very little mathematics. Certainly not enough for my tastes. It did introduce me to the awful effects of schizophrenia, though.