The Colossal Book of Mathematics

What Hacker News says

1. calstadJun 2025
   These fall more in the "pop-sci" realm, but I think are really good at trying to convey what kinds of things working mathematicians actually think about:

   - Colossal Book of Mathematics by Martin Gardner: Uses games and recreational math to introduce areas like group theory and topology.

   - Finding Moonshine by Marcus Du Sautoy: Tells the story of the unexpected connection between two areas of math that, on the surface, seem to be completely unrelated.

   - The Great Mathematical Problems by Ian Stewart: Does a good job explaining several of the major open problems in math today.

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2. cableshaftJul 2021
   Well, I picked up the Colossal Book of Mathematics[1] by him after hearing about it and I'm having a lot of fun with it myself (it's just a bunch of really interesting math topics written really well, that are sparking my game designer brain), but yeah, he's not as discoverable today, in part because he's no longer living and people consume things a bit differently today.

   But someone could help promote his work again, by taking his articles and making Youtube videos of them, and give credit to him and urge people to check out his articles and books.

   [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Book-Mathematics-Paradoxes-P...

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3. pjungwirJul 2020
   I second this! Gardner would be something more recreational and fun than a lot else out there. The Colossal Book of Mathematics is a good way to get a lot in one place. The Night is Large is also great but less math-focused.

   I don't see any recommendations for Smullyan yet. The Lady or the Tiger is the classic I think, but I really loved Forever Undecided.

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4. pjungwirDec 2014
   Code by Charles Petzold will feel a bit slow at the beginning but gets pretty fun once he gets to circuits and builds up a whole functioning computer.

   Hackers by Steven Levy is a great history of the 50s to 80s. Very focused on the personalities of the non-establishment people who made things happen.

   Go To by Steve Lohr is also a history and super boring. Give it a pass.

   The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks--if you haven't read this yet, it's pretty light, and it's amazing how contemporary it feels.

   Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers: interviews of lots of famous computer pioneers. Very interesting to think about the remarks that appear again and again.

   Smart and Gets Things Done by Joel Spolsky will make you feel good about yourself. :-)

   The Mac is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams is a nice bite-sized lesson on type.

   The original Human Interface Guidelines by Apple is a pretty interesting look back into what motivated them in those days, especially if you do any iOS development.

   The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Tufte is not something you can carry on a bus but a pretty fun read.

   Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick is like a novel. I'm not sure I believe it all, but it's interesting.

   The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is tiny and will improve your writing a lot.

   Clear and Simple as the Truth by Thomas & Turner is good after you've digested Strunk & White a bit.

   Time Management for System Administrators by Limoncelli might give you some things to think about.

   Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets by Peter van der Linden is technical but super amusing and helpful if you've done any C before.

   Programming Collective Intelligence by Toby Segaran is a light overview of various machine learning techniques. Enough to make you sound like you know what you're talking about. :-)

   Release It! by Michael Nygard and Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle have good lessons on building reliable systems. The latter is more technical, even offering code for some things; the former, more high-level.

   Effective Java by Bloch has good tips if you do any Java. After 10+ years I still remember his idea that inheritance is a "scarce resource" and should be used sparingly. The discussion of `equals()` might convince you to switch to Ruby. :-)

   How about math? Get any collection of essays by Martin Gardner. The Colossal Book of Mathematics is more a bedside/restroom book than one for a bus, but they also publish many thin collections like Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi.

   Javascript: The Good Parts by Crockford is tiny and a classic.

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5. pjungwirDec 2012
   If people want more like this, _Introductory Graph Theory_ by Chartrand is an enjoying and easy read. In fact it looks like Dover has all kinds of short treatments of math subjects suitable to the layperson. And if you don't know about Martin Gardner, you really must check him out! _The Colossal Book of Mathematics_ and _The Night is Large_ are both wonderful big collections, and there are tons of smaller sets of essays.
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6. mdp2021Jul 2022
   I built so many, as a child, after reading Martin Gardner. Six faces for the basic ones, then many more. I used the tape of calculators with mechanical printing.

   Edit: looking for the original article from Martin Gardner; meanwhile: the submitted video was commented by the Scientific American (the original container) - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/flexagon-b...

   The original article was Flexagons // In which strips of paper are used to make hexagonal figures with unusual properties, published on December 1, 1956. The Scientific American has it online, but paywalled.

   Found it:

   https://archive.org/details/martingardnerthecolossalbookofma...

   in Martin Gardner - The Colossal Book Of Mathematics (page 385)

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