The math teachers I loved over the years all shared the same traits as Ellenberg. Same math humor. Same pure love of math -- and realistic view of it. Same desire to tell students that they can be good at math even if they think they don't understand it immediately.

So, yeah, this book gets 5 stars from me.

I went into it a bit warily -- I always do with pop sci books, and after my boyfriend told me I was going to "hate it" because "it does what you complain about -- dumbs down everything", I was a bit worried. But, turns out he doesn't dumb it down so much as actually makes it approachable. He's not fictionalizing some historical facts to make it readable; he's not waving a wand over shit and saying, "And then it does this". He goes deep enough to make his points, and then pulls back. And that is absolutely the right way to write, for both mathematicians (me) and math-phobics (my boyfriend).

I also love how he suggests the power of mathematical thinking is just viewing anything from ALL sides -- and that we should always disprove our beliefs at night. So. Good.

(The only not-good was the limited literature he talked about. Which, actually, is VERY good -- it was just limited. But that's what I should expect from a math book. I just always raise an eyebrow at David Foster Wallace... ;-) )