Friday, August 6, 2010

Practical Math and Novel Math

Books... Math Books, That Is...

Sol over at 'Wild About Math' blog just reviewed a very practical-sounding book I haven't come across previously: "101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math." See his positive review here:

http://tinyurl.com/26v6yp3

Looks like a good book for anyone interested in math... or anyone who should be interested in math! (actually, the publisher's target audience looks to be a young, middle-school-ish crowd... but hey, we were all young once ;-)).

And from the practical to the fictitious... Not into novels much myself, but for those who are, one volume of mathematically-inclined fiction that Martin Gardner (and others) have reviewed very favorably was a novel of intrigue entitled "PopCo" by Scarlett Thomas from 2004, containing many mathematical allusions.

a Web review here:

http://tinyurl.com/239kq5y

At the end of his own review of the work, Martin Gardner originally wrote, "Scarlett Thomas writes beautifully. Her novel is not easy to put down."  ...Could there be a better endorsement?!

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