"popular" mathematics for pure pleasure

Question

i'm looking for books that are math books, but easier reading, for pure pleasure. something like Jordan Ellenberg's How Not To be Wrong. just read it and absolutely LOVED it! it's a math book you can relax with and enjoy. what "popular" math books have you enjoyed?

Answer 1

Hey,

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How did we forget "The man who loved only numbers"? Absolute banger!

Answer 2

I don't know if it qualifies, but Math With Bad Drawings is a favourite of mine.

Answer 3

Chaos by James Gleick is great.

I had fun reading Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture as well.

Answer 4

A few suggestions you can look into:

•Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction, Timothy Gowers

• The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time
by Keith Devlin

•The Mathematical Century: The 30 Greatest Problems of the Last 100 Years, Piergiorgio

• The Calculus Gallery, William Dunham

• Letters to a Young Mathematician, Ian Stewart

• The Book of Numbers byJohn H. Conway

•Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem, Simon Singh

•101 Careers in Mathematics, AndrewSterrett

•The Best Writing on Mathematics Series

Answer 5

Cleo Cresswell's Mathematics and Sex was quite good, if you're into that sort of thing

Answer 6

Anything by Matt Parker and "The Parrot's Theorem" are my favourites :)

Answer 7

If you mean popular mathematics,

I suggest

Ernest Nagel Gödel 's Proof

Douglas Hofstadter Gödel Escher Bach

Roger Penrose shadows of the mind

İn this order.

None of those are particularly easy to read. However, it is pure fun.

Answer 8

I'm currently reading Ash and Gross' *Fearlsss Symmetry*, which I'm really enjoying. It's not one of those books thats more about personalities and history with all the math sucked out, it's a *math* book about the actual ideas, even if some of the proofs are elided. I'd recommend it highly if you're looking for something readable but not totally handwaving.

Answer 9

The Drunkard's Walk is my favorite book. It's more about randomness and statistics though.

Answer 10

another one i wanted to add was Brian Clegg's Game Theory: Understanding the mathematics of life