Good science or math books to read

[cs23]

Can anyone recommend any material to read leisurely?

 

[micromass]

"Real and complex analysis" by Rudin.

OK, just ignore me

 

[R.P.F.]

Hmm...Not sure what you mean by 'leisurely'. But I'd suggest go read Hardy's Apology if you haven't read it. (Snow's foreword actually made me cry...). You can also watch the seven lectures Feynman gave at Cornell. I already watched them like 10 times..

Oh and of course, "GEB".

 

[eumyang]

"Real and complex analysis" by Rudin.

OK, just ignore me

Oh, that's evil!

 

[Snicker]

Geometry and the Imagination ~ Hilbert

 

[mathwonk]

three dimensional geometry and topology by william thurston., vol. 1.

 

[cs23]

"Real and complex analysis" by Rudin.

OK, just ignore me

hahahahaha

 

[espen180]

Maybe "Visual Complex Analysis"?

 

[jbunniii]

These are real math books that also happen to be good leisure reading in my opinion:

Courant and Robbins, What Is Mathematics?
Stillwell, Mathematics and Its History

Here are some less rigorous ones which I've enjoyed:

Dunham, Euler: Master of Us All
Simmons, Calculus Gems

 

[Sankaku]

"Real and complex analysis" by Rudin.

I'll meet your Rudin and up the ante by one Lang's Algebra.

http://101usesforlang.com/



(I don't know any cartoons based on the Bourbaki textbooks).

 

[mal4mac]

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction - Timothy Gowers

 

[penta-d]

Hmmm, as much as I respect Papa Rudin, I'd recommend the Princeton Companion to Mathematics, or Mathematics from the Birth of Numbers for more casual reading. Any of the volumes of Dover's The World of Mathematics are also very good. Slightly thinner books I'd suggest are Gleick's Genius book about Feynman, Thirty Years that Shook Physics by Gamow, and maybe Kidder's Soul of A New Machine.

 

[206PiruBlood]

Courant and Robbins, What Is Mathematics?

"The Feynman Lectures on Physics" and this^^! I really enjoyed "What is Mathematics" as some casual reading and it's very accessible.

Also a good text on mathematical reasoning is essential.

 

[20Tauri]

What do you mean by leisurely? Studying at your own pace, or recreational reading?

One of my favorite math books is Fermat's Enigma, by Simon Singh. It's very accessible, compelling, and educational. It covers a lot of ground in mathematical history as it tells the story of how mathematicians over the years chipped away at the problem of Fermat's Last Theorem, until Andrew Wiles finally came up with a complete proof.

 

[dfan]

Maybe "Visual Complex Analysis"?

That was going to be my suggestion.

 

[jcw99]

Concepts of Modern Mathematics by Ian Stewart

 

[Mike706]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486253465/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I haven't had enough time to read much of it, but what I have read is interesting and a nice easy read.

 

[mathwonk]

geometry and the imagination, by hilbert and cohn vossen. but do not read anything by rudin, unless you are very unusual.