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oskhen's review against another edition
4.0
Here's a man who knew who he was and never tried being anything else. Crazy that you almost have to be insane to have that ability. Erdos will always be an immensely inspiring person and I can never get enough of his antics.
kartrick's review against another edition
5.0
First off, the rating certainly suffers from personal bias. I love (that word seems like an overstatement now that I've read about Erdos) numbers and mathematics, and I love eccentricities! Moreover, I can get really nerdy at times, so it was an absolutely fun read for me. If you want more of an unbiased rating, go for 4/5; there were a few annoyances but the book was overall an excellent one. I'm not sure whether to give biased or unbiased ratings on Goodreads, since there is no one explicit rule and there seem to be a wide variety of kinds of reviewers on this platform, some strictly analytical critics and some more of hobbyist readers.
This book talks about a lot of mathematicians and even scientists. To me, this is fantastic. I still don't understand why I had never of Paul Erdos in all my years in school (I left maths prior to joining college). It's not too surprising, considering that students are not given any idea of what the field of science or a scholarly lifestyle are like either. Personally, I didn't even understand the basics of academia until a year ago when I joined my master's programme. As such, the book mentions a lot of people, some of them ubiquitous names like Einstein, Aristotle and Gauss, but many more of them unfamiliar ones. While this was great and I loved getting to know different branches of mathematics and the kind of work various people did, I feel that it became too much; I forgot many of the people and oftentimes would have to go back and read a few passages or pages again. I think that this could have been handled to an extent by adjusting the style of writing, by taking care to not presume that the reader has complete retention of the previous chapters. I wouldn't complain about having to read a couple of sentences more, as the alternative is to spend even more time finding the right page on top of reading the sentences. However, it did cross my mind a few times while reading that it could have been much worse, and I appreciate the effort taken to make it the way it is.
I really liked that many mathematical findings were described in detail and in an engaging manner, almost like a story. Focus was given to the lives and anecdotes of the mathematicians too. The book certainly helped me form a much clearer picture of mathematics as a discipline and its history, having earlier only learnt or heard bits and pieces here and there haphazardly. That being said, at certain times, I saw this book as more of a textbook than a memoir. An awesome, engaging and fun mathematics textbook at that. This would probably explain the horribly slow pace I was able to keep reading the book (~20-25 pages/hour).
Reading this made me nostalgic; I really miss the simple pleasure I would get from doing maths. Although it was looked at as kind of a task in school and a majority of people dreaded it, I used to be elated at having found the solution to a problem or having finally understood a proof, or even just at being able to do high speed calculations and, in flights of moxie (and perhaps narcissism), blurt out the answer before anyone else. :P
Although ecology, or at least the direction within ecology I am headed in, deals a lot with numbers, it is mostly statistics-oriented and computer-driven, and I hardly ever get to relive some of that raw pleasure of doing maths by brain and hand. I was moved to such a point that I thought of having my 11th and 12th standard maths textbooks, which I'd kept with me after finishing school, posted to me so that I could pick up doing maths on a regular basis again.
Sidenote: The 11th and 12th CBSE maths textbooks are surprisingly very very good and are well-respected. They deal with most major topics and give a thick but strong foundation for anyone willing to put in the hard work to learn.
I found Erdos to be a truly fascinating person. I don't seem to really have much more to say. I do wish I could have met him. There were numerous times I found myself chuckling---mostly simply because of who Erdos was but sometimes also due to the author's wit.
To conclude, overall a fascinating book about a fascinating man that rekindled my love for maths. However, I feel that this might not be a book for everybody. Not because of the author, but because of the very nature of the content. If you find maths and/or the idea of a nomadic scholar intriguing, do give it a read!
This book talks about a lot of mathematicians and even scientists. To me, this is fantastic. I still don't understand why I had never of Paul Erdos in all my years in school (I left maths prior to joining college). It's not too surprising, considering that students are not given any idea of what the field of science or a scholarly lifestyle are like either. Personally, I didn't even understand the basics of academia until a year ago when I joined my master's programme. As such, the book mentions a lot of people, some of them ubiquitous names like Einstein, Aristotle and Gauss, but many more of them unfamiliar ones. While this was great and I loved getting to know different branches of mathematics and the kind of work various people did, I feel that it became too much; I forgot many of the people and oftentimes would have to go back and read a few passages or pages again. I think that this could have been handled to an extent by adjusting the style of writing, by taking care to not presume that the reader has complete retention of the previous chapters. I wouldn't complain about having to read a couple of sentences more, as the alternative is to spend even more time finding the right page on top of reading the sentences. However, it did cross my mind a few times while reading that it could have been much worse, and I appreciate the effort taken to make it the way it is.
I really liked that many mathematical findings were described in detail and in an engaging manner, almost like a story. Focus was given to the lives and anecdotes of the mathematicians too. The book certainly helped me form a much clearer picture of mathematics as a discipline and its history, having earlier only learnt or heard bits and pieces here and there haphazardly. That being said, at certain times, I saw this book as more of a textbook than a memoir. An awesome, engaging and fun mathematics textbook at that. This would probably explain the horribly slow pace I was able to keep reading the book (~20-25 pages/hour).
Reading this made me nostalgic; I really miss the simple pleasure I would get from doing maths. Although it was looked at as kind of a task in school and a majority of people dreaded it, I used to be elated at having found the solution to a problem or having finally understood a proof, or even just at being able to do high speed calculations and, in flights of moxie (and perhaps narcissism), blurt out the answer before anyone else. :P
Although ecology, or at least the direction within ecology I am headed in, deals a lot with numbers, it is mostly statistics-oriented and computer-driven, and I hardly ever get to relive some of that raw pleasure of doing maths by brain and hand. I was moved to such a point that I thought of having my 11th and 12th standard maths textbooks, which I'd kept with me after finishing school, posted to me so that I could pick up doing maths on a regular basis again.
Sidenote: The 11th and 12th CBSE maths textbooks are surprisingly very very good and are well-respected. They deal with most major topics and give a thick but strong foundation for anyone willing to put in the hard work to learn.
I found Erdos to be a truly fascinating person. I don't seem to really have much more to say. I do wish I could have met him. There were numerous times I found myself chuckling---mostly simply because of who Erdos was but sometimes also due to the author's wit.
To conclude, overall a fascinating book about a fascinating man that rekindled my love for maths. However, I feel that this might not be a book for everybody. Not because of the author, but because of the very nature of the content. If you find maths and/or the idea of a nomadic scholar intriguing, do give it a read!
vsnotresponding's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
aminowrimo's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book for Christmas from a friend, but it took me (as with most books) a while to start it. The book is well-written, combining Erdős' life with advances in the mathematics of the time. I very much enjoyed reading. I actually had to stop quite often to take notes on what was being said and to write down all the different new things I wanted to look into. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in biographies or mathematics. Erdős' life was fascinating—his mother did everything for him so that he could concentrate on math, and once he started traveling around the world, his friends, called "Uncle Paul sitters", took care of him and made sure that he didn't get into too much trouble. The man had his own unique passport, a pseudo language of his own where God is the Supreme Fascist, women are bosses and men are slaves, children are epsilons (he loved children), and above all, a great brain for mathematics. Hoffman outlines Erdős' life while delving into the mathematics of the time and their work. I may have finished one book, but I've added about twenty to my to-read list as a result of the references made and the bibliography.
caedocyon's review against another edition
5.0
the best math book for nonmathematicians I have ever read. a perfect mix of explanations of theorems, history, and hysterical anecdotes (which I read aloud to anyone who would listen).
etherealobamasexual's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating look at a pure life. An interesting journey to go through as a lost adult, admiring the beauty that was Paul Erdos and his life, fantasising of the greatness derived from pure love and devotion to something. Inspiring, intimate and charming. A welcome respite from all the depressing history that exists.