AK Peters Ltd.

The life of numbers; from an idea by Antonio J. Durán.

This attractively-designed book was distributed at the International Congress of Mathematicians held in 2006 in Madrid. Durán (mathematical analysis, U. of Seville) and company trace the development of numbers as an aesthetic as well as intellectual tool. High-quality illustrations include medieval manuscripts and maps, and early printed arithmetic books. Translated from Spanish, the volume includes references and a number genesis timeline, but interestingly for a book on numbers, no pagination. An online review by a Penn State professor says that: "It will become a collectors' item for its uniqueness." Distributed by AK Peters Ltd. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Numbers at work; a cultural history.

Sometimes it pays to rest one's mind with numbers and abstractions, an activity long enjoyed by guys in togas all the way to the current chino-clad crop of mathematical thinkers. Taschner (mathematics, Technical U. of Vienna) is committed to bringing the beauty of the mathematical to the public, and this shows how many concepts are sanctuaries with all those shouting realities, even on a daily basis. Taschner focuses on a set of mathematicians whose work shows up in our thinking and daily lives consistently, including Pythagorus, Bach, Hofmannsthal, Descartes, Leibnitz, Laplace, Bohr and Pascal, exploring numbers and their relationship to symbol, music, time, space, logic, politics, matter and spirit. This is, quite simply, a very good read even for those who consider themselves mathematical Neanderthals. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)