This was such an interesting book. I found all the math in it very reachable and understandable. He pulled in real life examples to make his points and covered math history as well. I thought his style was similar to Sam Kean, who writes very interesting and engaging science books.

Don’t let its title mislead you: this book is very self-aware, cleverly written, and quite frankly at many points hilarious. All very very sneakily teaching you about math.

Too much math

I heard Ellenberg's book described as a "Freakanomics for math." It is in the sense that Ellenberg weaves stories around challenging concepts and presents the math in a way that the reader both grasps and is entertained by. The stories are interesting as Ellenberg discusses how math was used in random bits of lesser known historical stories, such as fighter planes and world war two, and more recent stories examining how math can be used to significantly increase the odds of winning the lottery. If I had a better understanding growing up of how math can be beneficial in real practical applications, and not the problems created for standardized tests, I would have pushed toward continued study in college. The problem with math isn't math, it's how we teach it and how we talk about it's application in life and Ellenberg does an incredible job doing both for a broad audience.

Great. Dives into math concepts and keeps it light enough for non-math geeks. The preface should be read by every frosh high school kid.

I LOVED this book. It took me a whole year to read, but it wasn't the fault of the book. Ellenberg looks at all the ways we use math (correctly or not) and what mathematical thinking can show us if we listen.


*I have received this book through Goodreads First Reads.*