The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

The book that opened my eyes to what Math really was is a biography on Paul Erdös, The man who loved only numbers. Another really invaluable resource for me was How to solve it by Polya.

Awesome! I'll check them out. (Read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers already, it's great). If you're looking for something else, "Journey Through Genius" is absolutely the best semi-pop-science Math book. It's premise is that it goes through about 10 of the most interesting proofs in mathematics, giving their history and context, then the actual proof. It does what few other "pop" books attempt - it actually gives the real proof, taking you through all the steps. If you work it, you come away actually knowing how to prove the various things there. More interestingly, it gives the original historic proof, which is not what you always encounter. It even tends to explain the problems with the original proof, if any. And since it gives the history, you learn a lot. It's by far my favorite non-textbook math book, and I can't recommend it more highly if you're into that sort of thing.

Along the same lines, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers", about Paul Erdos. Very enjoyable.

Off the top of my head: - Soul of a New Machine - The Cuckoo's Egg - Revolution in the Valley - Fire in the Valley - Compilers by Sethi, Ullman, Aho - Masters of Doom - iWoz - Steve Jobs & the NeXT Big Thing - Crypto - Code - The Man Who Loved Only Numbers - The Man Who Knew Infinity - ANSI Common LISP Most of the books above are recommended because once reading them you will have an uncontrollable urge to immediately create something brilliant. You will not be able to stop yourself. -m