Alex Bellos’s ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’ is a marvellous book about mathematics, recommended to my elder daughter by her GCSE maths teacher last year. She didn’t read it, but when I saw a copy in the local Oxfam shop I grabbed it and, now having read it, am so pleased that I did. I can see absolutely why an inspirational maths teacher would recommend this book to his pupils although I can also see why most of those pupils would not consider reading it!
The book is a really good overview of why maths is relevant, important, fun, inspiring etc. It’s the sort of book that makes you want to study the subject much further, just for the sake of doing so. I particularly enjoyed the section on the maths of gambling but all the topics covered were interesting. I definitely recommend this one.
Tim O'Hare 