BookkooB : A Passion for Mathematics - Clifford A. Pickover : Compare Book Prices

	title:	A Passion for Mathematics: Numbers, Puzzles, Madness, Religion, and the Quest for Reality
	author:	Clifford A. Pickover
	format:	Paperback
	publisher:	John Wiley & Sons
	released:	August 5, 2005
	isbn:	0471690988
	isbn-13:	9780471690986

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Customer Reviews
Somewhat puerile - Rated I had trouble with this. I wasn't sure whether he was writing for precocious 3-year-olds or particularly backward adults. Mind, it can't be for children because some of the concepts used (he mentions unorthodox sexual activity once or twice) are decidedly adult. I appreciate that it can be difficult writing for the non-mathematically-inclined (you can never be sure that what you're writing is going to go way over the heads of the audience), but this guy might sometimes try to pitch what he writes to a particular level. As it is, this comes across as a patronising hotch-potch of incoherently disconnected factoids interspersed with some genuinely profound quotes, puzzles ranging from the stupidly trivial to the still-unsolved, and a style that while attempting to be amusing comes across as the sort of embarrassing as your father dancing to Top Of The Pops. The same fact is often repeated over and over again, as if he has forgotten he's already said something, and it's like hearing someone say the same joke over and over again. Aargh. He also has an obsession with extraterrestrialism (but then you knew that), which also grates across the nerves in this context. Having said that, some of the facts here are interesting, and the quotes could do with being extracted into their own book on the lives and thoughts of the great mathematicians - but if this is your sort of thing then I direct you to David Wells' excellent "Curious And Interesting Numbers". Give this one a miss (unless you find it in a bargain bin and have a couple of hours to kill), and for goodness sake do not get it as a gift for someone.

Customer Reviews

Somewhat puerile - Rated 2/5
I had trouble with this. I wasn't sure whether he was writing for precocious 3-year-olds or particularly backward adults. Mind, it can't be for children because some of the concepts used (he mentions unorthodox sexual activity once or twice) are decidedly adult. I appreciate that it can be difficult writing for the non-mathematically-inclined (you can never be sure that what you're writing is going to go way over the heads of the audience), but this guy might sometimes *try* to pitch what he writes to a particular level.

As it is, this comes across as a patronising hotch-potch of incoherently disconnected factoids interspersed with some genuinely profound quotes, puzzles ranging from the stupidly trivial to the still-unsolved, and a style that while attempting to be amusing comes across as the sort of embarrassing as your father dancing to Top Of The Pops.

The same fact is often repeated over and over again, as if he has forgotten he's already said something, and it's like hearing someone say the same joke over and over again. Aargh.

He also has an obsession with extraterrestrialism (but then you knew that), which also grates across the nerves in this context.

Having said that, some of the facts here *are* interesting, and the quotes could do with being extracted into their own book on the lives and thoughts of the great mathematicians - but if this is your sort of thing then I direct you to David Wells' excellent "Curious And Interesting Numbers".

Give this one a miss (unless you find it in a bargain bin and have a couple of hours to kill), and for goodness sake do *not* get it as a gift for someone.