(no subject)

[quesarah]

No, seriously people. I wasn't kidding. I need more math in my life. Rec me books, texts, general reading matter that will fire my neurons into a frenetic kinetic hyper mass of tiny currents?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

OK... try Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter for something entertaining and thought-provoking. I was reminded of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (Paul Hoffman) recently, a biography of Paul Erdos (you've already had an Umlaut, you're not getting fiddly Hungarian accents too), a particularly brilliant oddball dude. And if you're after interesting puzzly article thingies, try Ian Stewart or Martin Gardner.

If you're really desperate, I can always link you to my thesis :oD

[kensson.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was me.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Keen, thanks!

[mosca.livejournal.com]

The one thing that comes to mind right away is Theory of Moves, by Steven Brams. It's, like, the foundational text for all of Game Theory, and it's fascinating.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

OK groovy, I'll put it on the list.

[scrump.livejournal.com]

A Tour Of The Calculus (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679747885/102-8350589-7941716?v=glance&n=283155).

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201021153/102-8350589-7941716?v=glance&n=283155).

Newton's Principia (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520088174/qid=1146814012/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8350589-7941716?s=books&v=glance&n=283155).

And, for fun:

Cryptonomicon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380788624/qid=1146814066/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-8350589-7941716?s=books&v=glance&n=283155).

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Excellent recs! Thanks!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have a biography of Feynman that looks as if it might be a lot of fun. It's one of those things I may never read, you could probably have it if you'd like.

[kensson.livejournal.com]

His memoiry things are good too - "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman" is a cracking read.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Wait.. Hold on...

*checks book shelf*

Yes, that's the book I have!

Hmm, okay, I might have a crack at it then.

[scrump.livejournal.com]

I always recommend James Gleick's Genius (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679747044/sr=8-1/qid=1146844876/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4694822-0643055?%5Fencoding=UTF8) as the Feynman biography: I own all of the "Feynman books", as well as No Ordinary Genius (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039331393X/qid=1146844926/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-4694822-0643055?s=books&v=glance&n=283155), and Gleick's is definitive.

Of course, pretty much every book by or about Feynman is worth reading, IMNSHATBO.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Maths scares me, but I have a few books on quantum mechanics?

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Sounds groovy. Fire away.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

A random assortment of sciencey books from my bookshelves:

The Tao Of Physics - Fritjov Capra
The Birth Of Time - John Gribbin.
Looking Glass Universe - JP Briggs and FD Peat.
Measuring the Universe, the historical quest to Quantify space - Kitty Ferguson.

I must admit, these are from my to-be-read pile, so I can't particularly endorse any of them at this time. And for the life of me, I can't remember the names of the 3 or 4 books on quantum physics I read that I got out the library... Damn.

[geli-tripping.livejournal.com]

I believe I might have some addition/subtraction flash cards you could borrow.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

You git. :p

[mzwyndi.livejournal.com]

The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi... is one of my favorites.


e: The Story of a Number seems to follow the same monographic notion.

and, I'm intrigued now and might buy...

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

isaac asimov wrote a short piece a way he had devised to render extremely large, complex numbers in an incredibly simple fashion - i believe it was called "the T number".

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Is this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517371456/qid=1146934130/sr=1-37/ref=sr_1_37/103-3586835-4885434?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) the book you're talking about?

[drealle.livejournal.com]

Dicing with Death : Chance, Risk and Health, a really interesting book on the role of statistics in our decisions about health and disease.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Did I ever tell you that I took stats for epidemiological studies as an elective in grad school? And that I really enjoyed it?