It was okay--lots of stuff on logic. There were some good examples that I might use in my geometry class. Interesting stories about people the author met on his travels. I wouldn't read it unless you like math though.

Recommended by Sue Van Hattam
http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/20...

Not bad. I actually finished this book a couple months ago and so its a bit of a struggle to recall exactly what the pros and cons are. It was good enough to sustain my interest until the end! So that says something I guess. This is not a book I would recommend at the top of the list of the genre of "pop math" books though. That of course leads to the question: "what are your top recommendations in the genre of pop math books" and of course I am at a loss right now. I have several at home, some of which I have actually read! Let me get back to you on that...

The purpose was good and noble, the result quite different though... it's just an introduction to logic...

Mazur does a superb job introducing matematical characters and concepts. The plot had little to do with rainforests, and had a completely unnecessary sex scene. Highly rated due to the accessibility granted to mathematical ideas by way of fictional conversation. Mazur needed to do this because sadly, most accessible mathematical conversations are fictitious.

Math bits are decent, but book adds little to other popular treatments. Autobiographical bits are a completely superfluous bore.

A lot of the book consists of indulgent travelogues from Mazur, in which he travels to obscure parts of the world and invariably encounters mathematical savants with which he engages in complex conversations about statistics. The travelogues did not work for me at all, and while I enjoy popular mathematics books, this one had a starting point that was a bit too advanced for me (which is not Mazur's fault). I'm sure some folks will enjoy the book (maybe in my family), but it didn't work for me.

This is an odd little book. Half 'math for non-math people' book, half travelogue? It seems to be a mix that, while ambitious, isn't particularly useful. Or, at least, it didn't appeal to me.

I really, really wanted to like this book. The table of contents sounded so interesting: infinity! logic! how math pertains to reality! But, the further I got into the book, the more frustrated I became. Each section -- infinity, logic, and reality -- contains several chapters, but it's never clear to the reader how each chapter relates to the overarching theme. Moreover, each chapter itself seemed just like a collection of math-related stories, one after the other, with no obvious link. (I'm sure there *were* links, but I would have had to work to find them.) Also -- and this may seem like a nit-picking critique -- the weak topic sentences really got in the way of my understanding each paragraph. Topic sentences have to set up the rest of the sentences in a paragraph, giving the reader a kind of road map, but these didn't. Arrrrgh! In my opinion, the book should be rewritten under the watchful eye of a careful editor.

Math is so much more than people give it credit for. If you like music and reading, you'd also like math theory if you gave it a chance. Its every bit as artful. And this book gets that across.

Joseph Mazur illuminates how we uncover truth in the tangled web of our experiences–and convince ourselves that we are right.

Good book about maths which takes a village sage's approach , telling a story in the author's life which comes across interesting and relatable using to tie in mathematical concepts; which include proving a square and the zeno paradoxes amongst other things.

The author has a very readable form of writing.

The book certainly allowed me to understand some concepts( and mathematics in general) a lot better and it provided proofs for various problems which did motivate me to take out a notepad and study the problem - something a good math book should do...