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Paul Gibbons's avatar

Weapons of math destruction and how not to be wrong also

Terezija Semenski's avatar

Those 2 are worth reading as well. I have also recommended How not to be wrong, I loved that book. Weapons of math destruction is on my TODO list, I’m planning to read it this summer.

Paul Gibbons's avatar

Math needs have to stick together. #amiright

Heisenberg's avatar

One of my favourite math books, somewhat in the spirit of those listed in this article, is “The Man Who Counted”, by Malba Tahan.

I read it for the first time when I was still a kid, in my native Brazil, and many more times over the decades since then, both in its original language (Portuguese) and in English. It is a delightful book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Counted

Edit: I just remembered another favourite of mine: “What’s the name of this book?” by Raymond Smullyian. It’s one of several of his books exploring logical puzzles of the form “you’re on an island where group X always lies and group Y always tells the truth” and its many variants. It’s not an easy read but it’s still tremendously enjoyable. At least it was for me.

A Reflection's avatar

Love it. Will definitely read the ones im missing.

One I enjoyed was -

How To Not Be Wrong: The Power Of Mathematical Thinking

by Jordan Ellenberg

Mike Zeno's avatar

Prime Obsession

m.nihad's avatar

I have been searching for these kind of books thank you so much for sharing . Always wanted to have a fun read on maths and physics . If you have any recommendations for physics books like this please share

Natasha Sachsenmeier's avatar

Great list! I’ve read 1, 2, 3, 11, Hardy and the du Sautoy. Pólya’s How to Solve It is an all-time classic of course, but probably too technical. I wonder though, could one sneak Gödel, Escher, Bach onto here?