I wasn't sure why this book was on my list, but when I read the footnote about 11 types of herring, I suspected it must've been jqadams, whose fantastic reviews often suggest things I might not otherwise read.

I have a math-y background, and do a lot of applied statistical stuff at work, but much of this was new to me. He had interesting things to say about thinking. I'm not sure he solved all the problems I need him too, but I did take some notes on things to quote later. Interesting, mostly engaging, pleasant, thought-provoking. (But not something I couldn't put down.)

I found about 30% of this book really interesting, but that 30% was scattered throughout the book. The author would start with a concept or idea that manifests in the real world (e.g. there is a lottery that demonstrates a concept). He would start explaining the hows and whys of that concept - all good so far. Then, he would tangent off to a historical discussion of how that mathematical tenet had come to be or how it had evolved through history, to demonstrate the underpinnings of the concept, then return to the concept and wrap it up. Those historical tangents wandered so far into the weeds and got so mired up in tangent upon tangent (quoting David Foster Wallace because his writing was mathematical? huh?), particularly towards the end of the book, that it was hard to maintain concentration during those sections. I'm not sure if I'd recommend this or not; maybe if you really like the history of science, you'd enjoy those tangents.

This book was interesting and touches upon a lot of fun mathematics, but it did not hold my attention the way I had hoped it would.

A beautiful mixture of math history and anecdotes sprinkled with explanations. I could not stop reading it; the stories were compelling and drew me in.

Worth every minute spent getting there for the final 30 pages.

Cumple su promesa de contar movidas matemáticas simples pero profundas, con una capacidad para divulgar contando historias envidiable. Lo bastante entretenido como para que no tenga problema recomendándolo aunque no esté seguro de si lo que dice realmente se te quedará en la memoria lo suficiente para no caer en los (muchas veces graciosos) fallos que señala.