Mathematics Students discussion

Hello everyone! I hope you are as excited as I am with the spring coming towards us!
I would like to know if any of you is interested in joining a bookclub discussion , we can suggest a list of books about Math and its history and as soon as we pick one we can post our thoughts and comments about it.
Let me know.

I'm interested in this. What books have caught your eye?
I have quite a few that I've been meaning to get to. Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem has been sitting on my bookshelf for months. I hope to get to it soon.
I'd also be interested in following one of the mathematics history books, such as The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. But if a list were to be created, I'd happily pick up, follow, and discuss anything suggested.

Glad you are interested Kevin . We will wait until more Mathematics students participate as well. ( note that Non-Mathematics are also VERY welcomed )
The books you suggested are definitely on the list.
If any of you would like to add some books please feel free to leave a comment even if you will be not reading it with us. It will be great to have your feedback on what kind of books you think we should add.

The list so far is :

- Fermat's Enigma : the Epics Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem.

-The History of Mathematics : An Introduction

-Men of Mathematics

-A history of Pi

-Descartes - En Intellectual Biography

-Journey through Genius : The Great Theorems of Mathematics

-One

-Five Equations That Changed the World : The Power and Poetry of Mathematics

-The Joy of x : A Guided Tour of Math , from One to infinity

-Mathematics : From the Birth of Numbers

-God Created the Integers

-The Joy of Mathematics

-e : the Story of a Number

I think it is a great idea to you join us if you love Math and interested in learning more about its history.
I know we are all busy , will do my best to keep the discussion at ease.

I think "God Created the Integers" might be a bit too daunting of a read for a book club. It also seems more of an anthology collecting landmark papers in mathematics. I own this book, but just saying it might not be the greatest book, especially at 1300+ pages.

Anyway, some books not on the list that I've read and enjoyed.

"The Calculus Wars" by Jason Bardi.

"Zero: The Biography of a Number" by Charles Seife (even though I've seen highly critical reviews of the book, I still enjoyed it.)

"I Want to be a Mathematician" by Paul Halmos

"Loving + Hating Mathematics" by Reuben Hersch

"Recountings: Conversations with MIT Mathematicians" by Joel Segel

"The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman (story of Erdos)

"The Artist and the Mathematician" by Amir Aczel (despite this book sort of being all over the place and dry in some areas, it had some quite good moments.)

Those are some of the books that stood out for me...

Thank you Adam , that was very helpful.
Zero was a very engaging, interesting, and enlightening read.
Waiting for more people to participate.
Hope you are all enjoying March Break.

Sara

Here's a suggestion: The hottest book in math lately seems to be Michael Harris's Mathematics Without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation.

I’ve now seen several popular press articles about it as well as several mentions from prominent mathematicians. Given it’s seeming ubiquity in the community, I thought I’d bring it to everyone’s attention if they’ve not come across it since its release in mid-January.

The final straw for me to buy a copy was a recent tweet:
Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz: Chapter 7 in "Mathematics without Apologies" is the most philosophically fascinating thing I've read in years. (https://twitter.com/stevenstrogatz/st...)

Woit, Mazur, Chaitin and many others have heartily endorsed it. I hope it’s as interesting as it sounds.

Description:
What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers—for the sake of truth, beauty, and practical applications—this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources.

Drawing on his personal experiences and obsessions as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, Michael Harris reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, he touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party?

Disarmingly candid, relentlessly intelligent, and richly entertaining, Mathematics without Apologies takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.

^----- That actually sounds pretty good!