ppl who luv playin with integers n physics its a must read

@ Arun u must read diz book u will luv it

What bothered me most about this book, is that the size of the fonts were continually changing - tiny font to medium, to large, to micro. It was unnecessary. This is a reference manual - not a readable or enjoyable book. It should have been organized and titled like a textbook (at the least) and certainly not as a history book or insight piece.

I think most people only buy this book because of the shiny cover, and due to the complicated nature of the interior - they never finish it, but just attribute that to their ignorance (rather than the books unreadability) - then they praise Hawking's intellect. Maybe that was Hawking's intention. He could very well have made the book readable, considering half of the topics are below 6th grade algebra.

First chapter is nice introduction.
Other chapters read more like research papers.

this is the very nice book and it makes u learn maths not only but also history

Should have been my warning to not do a maths degree. Good book though.

It is amazing to work through the development of mathematics with one as gifted as Stephen Hawking! From the earliest Greek "dilemmas" to the modern day thought and how these thoughts impacted our world.

This is a really good book but not perfect. My biggest problem with the book is that there is NO index. Every reader of mathematical books knows that the index and table of contents is as important is extremely important. The choice of topics is interesting and I enjoyed the brief bio for each mathematician. I strongly feel that the publisher should include an index for this book as it is sorely missed.

A giant book with a lot to explore, but not very easy to understand. It's a collection of excerpts from the work of famous mathematicians, with very short biographies by Hawking. Even reading this as a senior math major I couldn't follow most of the math in any detail, so I only have an impressionistic sense of most of it. It surprised me most with the earlier mathematicians. I would have expected to understand them because what they discovered are relatively simple things that I mostly learned in high school, but they discuss it in geometrical language that's disorientingly different from modern ways of talking about it. The work and lives of the different mathematicians included from the nineteenth century have a lot of interconnections, but in earlier time periods they're too widely scattered. I'm going to use the list chosen by Hawking as a framework to relate other math history that I read to, but it doesn't make a connected story by itself.

It's a book of essays that I keep by the couch. I don't anticipate "finishing" it, but rather picking it up occasionally over time.

one of the finest books i've read

A collection of seminal math papers. Honestly, if you're not a historian, you can probably get pop sci math books that explain things better.I wasn't up to actually reading most of it.

For those of us who are inspired by biographies, get excited when present with a new encyclopedia and believe music and mathematics are the purest forms of communication and expression - this book is a rare jewel.
However, if you just enjoy reading biographies about amazing people - this also, is a piece of cake for this book. If you like to have your mind stretched - I challenge even other mathematicians to not find merit worthy equations to dazzle and tickle the brain. Happy reading.

PS. Take your time with it. Maybe read a novel on the side to let your brain cells stew on each chapter - or even read it like a reference book. Check out the topical guide and have a party