Could anyone recommend a book for an amateur math enthusiast? (amateur there is modifying math, not enthusiast) :-)

Are you looking for Calculus, Algebra, Geometry, etc, which field do you like?

Convergent Series by Larry Niven is the title story in one of his collections. It is the only story I can think of that directly relates to math.

I'll second the Berlinski directly above. You might also try something like Mathematics and The Imagination, The Mathematical Tourist (or any of Peterson's work) or maybe try some of the Great Discoveries series (or whatever it's called).

Everything and More

Incompleteness

Mayhap something by John Allen Paulos, like Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences or A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.

There are also some pretty good bios out there (Mathematicians are INSANE!) They might be light the actual math, but might give you some background.

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan

A Beautiful Mind

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

Pop History -

Chaos

Lay Talk -

A Mathematician's Apology

Message edited by its author, Jul 17, 2008, 6:05pm.

I really enjoyed Isaac Asimov's Asimov On Numbers.

I second the Innumeracy recommendation, and also Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz.

It's been a while, but I believe math was involved in The Eight by Katherine Neville. It was very good.

Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions. Seriously. This is a great little adventure/allegory about one-, two-, an three-dimensional worlds written in such a way that even I can understand.

You might like Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, and Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem.

I'll second Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott, MerryMary. Which reminds me, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster is a lovely little math story. There's also a video version of it.

Wonderful recommendations! I've had a cognitive itch recently to get back into math studies (not that I was ever in it to begin with, only loved my classes in college) and while books on the love of science are widely available and popular (Dawkins and Gould, Stephen immediately come to mind) I've had trouble finding similar works on math. And, re: madcow299: I wasn't thinking any field in particular but calculus always brought me sublime joy :)

A Mathematician's Apology is a great place to start. An easy read. Its short. Highly recommended.

I suggest Flatland too.

And it you like to read about mathematicians, I suggest Fermat's Enigma.

Message edited by its author, Jul 10, 2009, 10:04am.

I think my brother would describe himself similarly. I gave him The Art of the Infinite: the Pleasures of Mathematics by Robert Kaplan recently and he really enjoyed it.