I’m copying part of this from Ali Kayaspour at Medium.com. I’ve read some of these but not all. A while ago I made a list of math-related books for my students to read; maybe I should resurrect it. Here is the link.
13 Classic Mathematics Books for Lifelong Learners
Apr 26, 2018 · 8 min read
When I was a college student, I saw a list of essential math books on a blog. I promised to myself to read all those books in 10 years because there were 50 books on that list. I am still trying to finish the list. And now it is time to share some of them with you.
Mathematics is beautiful and astounding. There is a lot of joy in understanding mathematics, for instance, how the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem or the secrets of pi, e, epsilon…
Anyway, if you passed a lot of math courses but failed to make any sense out of them during your education, those books were written for you.
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. | Charles Seife
This is a great book that could make almost anyone love math. I found it to be quite interesting, despite my already knowing quite a bit about the topics being covered. I absolutely love Seife’s writing style. He had me laughing out loud more than a few times.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone could spend 220 pages talking about one number. While you are reading, you do not need to work through the actual with a pencil and paper. Instead the author walks you through the logic.
The history parts of this book were interesting enough to make it worth it. It covers a lot of world history. It begins with humans use of numbers and counting. I learned about Archimedes, Laplace, Newton, Euler, their contributions to math and their lives.
You can buy the book from here.
This book is a must read for math teachers. It is about how mathematics should be taught. When you start reading, you will realize that, the book is a powerful criticism on the prevalent curriculum of Mathematics in elementary, middle and high schools.
Paul Lockhart thinks that mathematics is an art, and it is much more than memorization of notations and formulas. For him, mathematics is a life-long love.
He believes that we have to stop teaching mathematics in the traditional way and we need to start using our natural curiosity to teach and learn mathematics.
It is a serious read involving actual mathematics and should be treated as a reference book and should be referenced from time to time, specially if you are in high school or college.
The author makes sure that you stay at the edge of your seat during the book, perhaps even after you’ve read the whole thing.
You can buy the book from here.
Prelude to Mathematics | W.W. Sawyer
This book is literally a classic and it is a very enjoyable read. It is about how a mathematician thinks and how to grow a mathematician.
“Prelude to mathematics” would be very meaningful for a reader who was not already familiar with such topics.
Mr. Sawyer attempts to provide an understanding of Mathematics for pretty much anyone.
You can buy the book from here.
Proofs from The Book | Aigner and Ziegler
“But to tell the truth, what they really want to prove, once in their lifetime,…”
This book contains only the “best” proofs from many different fields of mathematics. And this book is not a textbook. Ziegler and Aigner take us briefly to another world.
If you are going to read this book, you should have the knowledge of calculus and linear algebra. Otherwise, you can struggle in order to follow the proofs.
What makes it fun is that the author walks you through the most famous proofs in all of mathematics simplifying them to simple equations that you can solve in your head.
I’d heard much praise for this book and it is certainly worth it. I wish I had a book like this assigned along with the textbook during my high school math classes.
You can buy the book from here.
The Joy of x | Steven Strogatz
“The joy of x” should be beginner’s book, because this book introduces us to the wonders of mathematics very simply. It is really a brilliant introduction to mathematics.
For this book, the content is coming from a long-running blog. Each chapter is very short and about a particular feature of mathematics. Mr. Strogatz’s writing style is very engaging.
However, if you have a strong knowledge of mathematics, this book will be a easy read for you. Thus, you don’t need a PHD to enjoy this book.
You can buy the book from here.
Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension | Matt Parker
This book is a nice and recommended read. It’s about “fun parts of mathematics.” The author’s writing style is so light and clear and these makes all the content understandable without a heavy background of mathematics.
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