rramadassJul 2026

Not the person you asked the question of;

I thought everybody knew of this site especially Indians since it was started and is lovingly maintained by an Indian :-) A lot of hard work has gone into it with not just scanning of the books but also typesetting some of them in latex for better rendering and reading. The website author deserves all the credit/acclaim he can get.

All of the books are hosted on internet archive which you can browse here - https://archive.org/details/mir-titles

Many of the titles are also published in hard copy form by low-cost Indian publishers on Amazon India.

Some recommendations which are not typical textbooks;

1) Little Mathematics Library series - https://mirtitles.org/2024/05/11/little-mathematics-library-...

2) Books by Lev Tarasov. Some of these books are structured as a dialogue and thus walks you through the conceptual process. Titles are on Calculus, Probability, Quantum Mechanics, Physics Q/A etc. All worth reading; some of them are latex remastered versions - https://mirtitles.org/?s=Tarasov

3) Higher Math for Beginners(with Yaglom) and Elements of Applied Mathematics(with Myskis) by Zeldovich - https://mirtitles.org/?s=zeldovich

4) Mathematical Handbook (two vols); Elementary Mathematics and Higher Mathematics by M.Vygodsky. - https://mirtitles.org/?s=vygodsky

5) Handbook of Physics by Yavorsky and Detlaf - https://mirtitles.org/?s=Handbook+of+Physics

6) Fundamentals of Physics by Ivanov - https://mirtitles.org/2018/04/21/fundamentals-of-physics-iva...

7) Ever popular Science/Maths books by Yakov Perelman viz. Physics for Entertainment, Mathematics can be Fun etc. - https://mirtitles.org/?s=Yakov+Perelman

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rramadassNov 2025

I would say almost all of the Soviet era Mir Publishers books are like this. Small, succinct and information-dense.

As an example, Vygodsky's 2-vol "Mathematical Handbook" (Elementary Mathematics & Higher Mathematics) and Yavorsky & Detlaf's "Handbook of Physics" have ungodly amounts of knowledge in a relatively small size books.

You can get them (and more) from https://mirtitles.org/

Handbook Of Physics – Yavorsky, Detlaf - https://mirtitles.org/2022/06/27/handbook-of-physics-yavorsk...

Mathematical Handbook – Higher Mathematics – Vygodsky - https://mirtitles.org/2022/06/02/mathematical-handbook-highe...

Mathematical Handbook – Elementary Mathematics – Vygodsky - https://mirtitles.org/2011/09/12/handbooks-of-mathematics/

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synthmeatFeb 2020

I'd second the "What is Mathematics?" and "Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning" recommendations, in that order. Both are very cheap, comprehensive, and in ascending rigour. After those, it's really dealer's choice, with "Concrete Mathematics" being of particular interest to computer scientist.

Additionally:

- "Princeton Companion to Mathematics" is really fun to have around for exploration

- if you're really really rusty with math, take a week or two with "Mathematical Handbook - Elementary Mathematics" by Vygodsky

I literally have all these on my desk at this very moment, what a fun coincidence.

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sklogicFeb 2016

There is One Book to rule them all (sorry, could not find a link to the original 1973 edition):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mathematical-Handbook-Scientists-Eng...

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