Great book!

Only read if you love math history. It was good.

Caption was captivating.. The first chapter too!

Skimmed through the more technical stuff. This is something I'd want to own, not just borrow from the library (which is what I did) so that I could look through it at my leisure, or when I needed to look something up. Really interesting. Learned some new anecdotes. Began to understand that mathematicians are even crazier than I had assumed.

An exquisite book containing many interesting concepts and factoids. The equations presented for the most part require a secure understanding of calculus. Beyond the explicit mathematics, Hawking briefly describes the life of about a dozen mathematicians before diving into their accomplishments and discoveries. Expensive for a book mostly containing material obtainable online for free, but still a solid read.

Location: GG7 IRC
Accession No: DL027580

I am slowly working through this. Very difficult read, but very challenging also.

A book for hardcore math geeks. The rest of us can read something else.

I liked the stories of the mathematicians, but all their papers were too long or confusing. The only one that I made it through was Turing's, which was fascinating.

Fascinating history of the evolution of ideas.

Great book, I'm sure. Now, if I could only understand the math...

Not for the beginner.

I was lost by page 3. Then I scanned the rest of the book. I had hoped Hawking would explain some of these books in a more understandable way. Nope.

None of these types seem to believe in diagrams. It's all verbal descriptions which, if there is any ambiguity in the writing (which there was: Hawking needed a better editor), made it difficult/impossible to follow the mathematical descriptions and formulas.