I’ve always been fond of Mathematics, and as a theoretical Physicist have taken a fair number of Math courses in college and grad school. However, since getting out of grad school my exposure to the Math world has been rather cursory to nonexistent. That’s why I was really excited to come across this volume of interesting and insightful essays on various Math topics.

The nature of topics covered in this volume is very diverse. It ranges from insights into the pure contemporary abstract mathematics, to the applied Math of early scientific instruments. Mathematics touches almost every aspect of scientific, cultural and even artistic life, and the selection of topics in this book reflects the protean nature of this metadiscipline. Most of the essays are written in an accessible and easy to follow style, and this book ought to be readable by the widest imaginable audience. For a book on Mathematics there are surprisingly few equations and numbers. This collection will especially appeal to readers who appreciate the cultural, pedagogical, and historical aspects of Mathematics.

One thing that I wish is that this collection contained more articles on recent research and development in Mathematics. Like many sciences, Mathematics has become too complex and fragmented even for most of its practitioners. A collection of essays that is aimed at an advanced layperson explaining what is exciting about the recent mathematical research would probably have a lot of appeal to a wide audience.

Another thing that I didn’t like about this collection is that there were two or three essays that I found completely rambling. Their authors seemed to relish a pseudo-intellectual discourse and tried to come across as very philosophical and intellectually profound. Instead, those essays felt really trite and vacuous. Fortunately, that kind of writing was in a distinct minority and did not really detract from the enjoyment of this volume. However, I would still expect a book that claims to be the “best” collection of mathematical writing to be completely void of such inanities.