Reddit reviews Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

Hey! This comment ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, oops.

My all-time favs of these kinds of books definitely has to be Prime Obsession and Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire - Prime Obsession covers the history behind one of the most famous unsolved problems in all of math - the Riemann hypothesis, and does it while actually diving into some of the actual theory behind it. Unknown Quantity is quite similar to Prime Obsession, except it's a more general overview of the history of algebra. They're also filled with lots of interesting footnotes. (Ignore his other, more questionable political books.)

In a similar vein, Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh also does this really well with Fermat's last theorem, an infamously hard problem that remained unsolved until 1995. The rest of his books are also excellent.

All of Ian Stewart's books are great too - my favs from him are Cabinet, Hoard, and Casebook which are each filled with lots of fun mathematical vignettes, stories, and problems, which you can pick or choose at your leisure.

When it comes to fiction, Edwin Abbott's Flatland is a classic parody of Victorian England and a visualization of what a 4th dimension would look like. (This one's in the public domain, too.) Strictly speaking, this doesn't have any equations in it, but you should definitely still read it for a good mental workout!

Lastly, the Math Girls series is a Japanese YA series all about interesting topics like Taylor series, recursive relations, Fermat's last theorem, and Godel's incompleteness theorems. (Yes, really!) Although the 3rd book actually has a pretty decent plot, they're not really that story or character driven. As an interesting and unique mathematical resource though, they're unmatched!

I'm sure there are lots of other great books I've missed, but as a high school student myself, I can say that these were the books that really introduced me to how crazy and interesting upper-level math could be, without getting too over my head. They're all highly recommended.

Good luck in your mathematical adventures, and have fun!

This is just a giant (one might even call it colossal) book of all the things that might make one love math.

Martin Gardner's The Colossal Book of Mathematics.

https://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Book-Mathematics-Paradoxes-Problems/dp/0393020231

Also look at the "frequently bought together" section on the Amazon listing. The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems is also a masterpiece. I hadn't seen My Best Mathematical and Logical Puzzles before, but now I'm getting it...

Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities is also a lovely book of cool things in math.

https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Stewarts-Cabinet-Mathematical-Curiosities/dp/0465013023

In fact, I'd recommend all of Ian Stewart's books.

And its sequel, "Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures". They're both sitting on my bookshelf.

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Stewarts-Cabinet-Mathematical-Curiosities/dp/0465013023
http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Stewarts-Hoard-Mathematical-Treasures/dp/0465017754

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Delight-Penguin-mathematics-Sawyer/dp/0140130349
and
http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Stewarts-Cabinet-Mathematical-Curiosities/dp/0465013023

I've seen some cool stuff from this book http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Stewarts-Cabinet-Mathematical-Curiosities/dp/0465013023

Discrete mathematics with ducks!

Contemporary Abstract Algebra

An Illustrated Theory of Numbers

Visual Complex Analysis

Number-Crunching

The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science

Recently made a move and these are a few books on my shelf that stand out more.

There are so many beautiful mathematical images that could be chosen though and I do wish more publishers would have more creative book covers also.