Customer Reviews

The Mathematical Magpie

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This anthology might as well be titled Fantasia Mathematica, Volume 2. When Volume 1 first appeared in 1958, readers couldn't get enough, so this work followed in 1962, and is now back in print. I first read Volume 1 as a teenager, so the current title doesn't carry for me the nostalgia of the original, but there's still lots of good stuff. This time, the best section appears first, A Set of Imaginaries, to get the reader hooked. Two of the better stories are The Appendix And The Spectacles, and Coconuts. As with the original, you don't have to be mathematically inclined, but it helps -- or does it hurt?

Being a fundamental component of the human experience, it is natural that mathematics will appear in literature. In this book, Fadiman has brought together a collection of fiction works where mathematics plays a role in the plot. The level of involvement is varied, in some stories it is fundamental and in others it is incidental. However, in all cases it is exciting to see how it is used to flesh out a significant story.
The level of mathematics is rarely beyond what the educated person would expect to pick up in high school and when it does exceed that plateau, it is nothing that cannot be understood from the context. Many areas are included, from music to verse. I enjoyed the stories, they were a joy to read and as a writer, they caused me toss around some mathematical ideas that I would like to try to exploit in a fictional context. They are successful in two areas, exciting and inspiring.

Being a fundamental component of the human experience, it is natural that mathematics will appear in literature. In this book, Fadiman has brought together a collection of fiction works where mathematics plays a role in the plot. The level of involvement is varied, in some stories it is fundamental and in others it is incidental. However, in all cases it is exciting to see how it is used to flesh out a significant story.
The level of mathematics is rarely beyond what the educated person would expect to pick up in high school and when it does exceed that plateau, it is nothing that cannot be understood from the context. Many areas are included, from music to verse. I enjoyed the stories, they were a joy to read and as a writer, they caused me toss around some mathematical ideas that I would like to try to exploit in a fictional context. They are successful in two areas, exciting and inspiring.

This looks like a good book. I heard about it from my math teacher and read the sample online. My question is, why would anyone want to pay over $50 for a copy of the same book they can get for $14? Are the pages made of gold? I recommend the book to anyone who wants a lighthearted look at numbers.