The Guardian: Five of the best books about maths

From classic 350-year-old problems to more modern mysteries such as algorithms, AI and why buses come in threes, these books do the sums and show their workings

The sheer number of books about numbers makes selecting five maths-related books a challenge. Since the Egyptian scribe Ahmes put pen to papyrus some time around 1550BC to explain how to calculate the slope of a pyramid, we’ve had over three millennia of maths literature. So within some level of statistical confidence: here are a subset of the best ever maths books.

Mathematics, Magic and Mystery by Martin Gardner

This is a seminal book about recreational maths. For much of human history, books about maths were fairly practical, as numbers and calculations are indispensable tools to build a civilisation. Martin Gardner’s work relished in mathematics for its own sake; something to be done as a hobby by amateurs. His column in Scientific American would inspire generations of maths enthusiasts.

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