Review
Beyond Numeracy will uundoubtedly entertain and educate many people and open up for them the mysterious and closed book - the book of the universe, as Galileo had it - of mathematics. -- Brian Rotman, London Times Literary Supplement. 1991
His brief essays are arranged alphabetically by topic, and as with one of its precursors, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, it makes for an often jolly little book. ... If there is much to take issue with in Beyond Numeracy, there is also much to be amused and enlightened by. The lore has it that when Pythagoras discovered his great theorem on right triangles, he was so transported that he sacrificed 100 head of oxen to the gods as a token of gratitude. On this scale, Mr. Paulos's book is surely worth an ox or two. -- Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal. 1991
If you've ever wanted to recapture that sense of near- mystical rapture, there is no better place than this book, and no more humane and enthusiastic mentor than John Allen Paulos, who does for mathematics what The Joy of Sex did for the boudoir interface. ..... Paulos painstakingly presents even the most recondite ideas in concrete, easily visualizable terms. ..... But Paulos's principal genius lies in the recognition that many of those humans are "unknowing mathophiles" who "have been thinking math all their lives without realizing it." For those, for anyone, who ever sat rapt at the austere beauty of a proof and later wondered where the wonder went, it's here. -- Curt Supplee, Washington Post Book Review, 1991
This is a book full of details, but its real aim seems to be to convey not any specific fact so much as a style, even a spirit. A book of the spirit should be deeply personal, so Paulos has chosen his format wisely. ..... P.B. and J.S. Medawar compiled a sometimes cranky, sometimes brilliant survey of biology called Aristotle to Zoos in this format, and Beyond Numeracy, though not as magisterial, can hold its own as the mathematical equivalent. ..... this inviting book shows that those of us who aren't in touch with that realm are the poorer for it. -- Philadelphia Inquirer. 1991
From the Inside Flap
From the author of the national bestseller Innumeracy, a delightful exploration and explanation of mathematical concepts from algebra to zero in easily accessible alphabetical entries. "Paulos . . . does for mathematics what The Joy of Sex did for the boudoir. . . ."--Washington Post Book World. First time in paperback.
From the Back Cover
From the author of the national bestseller Innumeracy, a delightful exploration and explanation of mathematical concepts from algebra to zero in easily accessible alphabetical entries. "Paulos . . . does for mathematics what The Joy of Sex did for the boudoir. . . ."--Washington Post Book World. First time in paperback.
About the Author
John Allen Paulos is an acclaimed author, popular public speaker, and former monthly columnist for ABCNews.com, the Scientific American, and the Guardian (London). A professor of math at Temple University in Philadelphia, he earned his PhD in the subject from the University of Wisconsin. His books include A Numerate Life, the New York Timess–bestselling Innumeracy, and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. In 2003 he received the American Association for the Advancement of Science award for promoting public understanding of science, and in 2013 the Mathematics Communication Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.
