What Are the Best General Math Books for Light Reading?

[dkotschessaa]

General Math "Light" Reading

Was wondering if anybody would like to recommend or just discuss any general books you may know about concerning math in general, be it historical, biographical or some of the other general works that are out there.

I'm curious about what I keep seeing in the bookstores. For example, the numbers https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140296476/?tag=pfamazon01-20, each have at least one book written about them, some have two. Has anybody checked these out and can recommend?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691095418/?tag=pfamazon01-20 books.

I took a look at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691145997/?tag=pfamazon01-20 but it seems more of a musing on some things that seemed somewhat obvious to me, at least according to experience, though I realize such things aren't obvious to everyone. Still I wonder if it's worth a second look.

Anyway, that's what I've come across.

-DaveKA

 

[Edgardo]

I have read the following books and recommend them without any hesitation:

1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385493622/?tag=pfamazon01-20
by Simon Singh
A wonderful book about Fermat's last theorem and the mathematician Andrew Wiles who worked on the proof for five years.

2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684859807/?tag=pfamazon01-20 by Bruce Schechter
This book is about the famous mathematician Paul Erdős.

3) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805062998/?tag=pfamazon01-20
by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
This is a very light book telling the story of a boy who meets the number devil in his dreams.

 

[awkward]

Here are two of my personal favorites.

"The Pleasures of Counting" by T.W. Korner. The target audience is ages 14 to college freshman, but I can testify that people with graduate degrees can read it with pleasure. I would have thought from the title that the book would be about combinatorics, but it is not. Instead the material tends to run to early operations research, statistics, algorithms, cryptanalysis of the Enigma, and many other topics.

"Gamma: Exploring Euler's Constant", by Julian Havil, with an introduction by Freeman Dyson. Here the prerequisite is two semesters of calculus. A lovely discussion of the gamma constant, the gamma function, the Riemann zeta function, and their connections.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Still time to add these to my amazon wish list... I will check these out!

 

[dkotschessaa]

Any opinions on the books I mentioned? They're the kind of thing you hear about on NPR which makes you want to read them, but you never really know until you do...

 

[discrete*]

I can personally recommend Eli Maor's books. I've read a few of them, and they're all fantastic' e: The Story of a Number is my favorite.

John Derbyshire wrote a very good historical account of algebra called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History. It's excellent; very thorough.

And if you want to read about the history of mathematics look into Carl Benjamin Boyer. He's a historian of mathematics and has written a few excellent books.

 

[micromass]

I also like to add "The math book" from Clifford Pickover. It gives a one-page introduction to many interesting and entertaining math facts. I always love skimming through it...

 

[discrete*]

I don't know what one considers "light" reading, but Gelfand's Algebra has been indispensable to me. It's certainly not groundbreaking mathematics, but when I need a reference for some elementary algebra that I haven't done in years, it's the first place I go. It's written for those at the high school level (in honesty, probably more like middle school) but it has so much information in it that some way or another you will run into during your time as a student.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Well, when I say "light" I am basically referring to anything that a) isn't a textbook, or b) something that you'd read at the beach if you're nerdy enough. Or pre-bed reading. I even put Sylvanus P. Thompsons "Calculus Made Easy" in this category because to me it has literary value on top of being a great introduction to calculus. (I have read it in bed).

Pretty much all of the above recommendations have been added to my wish list, which I'm hoping a jolly bearded fellow has a chance to peruse at his leisure before a certain impending deadline.

-DaveKA

 

[jasonRF]

I would recommend

Sync, by Strogatz. Makes we want to do nonlinear dynamics!

A History of Pi, by Beckman. Interesting, if opinionated history, with some fun calculations sprinkled through.

An Imaginary Tale, by Nahin. All of his books that I have read are great. This is a historical introduction to imaginary numbers and basic complex analysis up through contour integration. Excellent. I have not yet read the sequel, Dr. Eulers Fabulous Formula, which also goes into Fourier analysis, the irrationality of pi, etc. I hope I get it for Christmas. These books assume you know basic calculus, but not much more, and are full of interesting history and fun math. These are nothing like textbooks - you can read through without pencil and paper if you wish and they will be enjoyable.

jason