A review by booker201314
The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

What a fantastic book. The short digestible chapters and the wonderful down to earth personality of the author makes this book an easy read. The simple explanations with understandable examples and images really helps explain the topics of algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and calculus in ways that I've never understood them before. The author sums up the theme of the book on page 131 "Every year about a million American students take calculus. But far fewer really understand what the subject is about or could tell you why they were learning it... There are so many new ideas to absorb that the overall framework is easy to miss." That is what the author does brilliantly; explains the overall framework of these topics and proves them, not with elaborate, difficult to follow mathematical proofs, but with images and intuitive examples. A truly excellent and unique book. I wish I had read this book 10 years ago.