Doesn’t everyone enjoy a good Summer read? Most of the fiction I consume these days is in audio format, but I’ve been reluctant to leave paper books when it comes to content for teaching or research (I write in my books). This Summer I’ve branched out a bit, and, as usual, I’ll probably not get through it all … we shall see.
- Combinatorics: Ancient and Modern (edited by Robin Wilson and John J. Watkins)
I’m a sucker for anything with Robin WIlson’s name on it. I loved Lewis Carroll in Numberland, and I still use both of his Graph Theory books as references for teaching.
I probably would have gravitated toward this title regardless, and especially after I saw the list of contributors (including Donald Knuth, Victor Katz, Norman Biggs, Lars Andersen, Ian Anderson, and Peter Cameron). After reading the introduction (Two Thousand Years of Combinatorics by Knuth) and a quick perusal of the rest, I’m eager to get going on this one.
- Prime Numbers and the Riemann Hypothesis (Barry Mazur and William Stein)
I’m not a number theorist, and I fake it most of the time. I’m hoping this book will at least make me more literate when it comes to the Riemann Hypothesis, so I can discuss it with students … but, this one is probably for my own guilty pleasure.
I decided to try an eBook version of this one, and so far that has been a bit disappointing. The equations seem to be rendered as images, so they don’t scale well. I’m worried that this might become more of an issue as the math gets more involved (this one is non-trivial).
- The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives (Leonard Mlodinow)
I’ve had this one for a few years, but it’s just been gathering dust on the shelf. I’m trying to get involved with a project involving middle schoolers and probability, and I noticed a colleague carrying this around. So, I literally blew (scrubbed?) the dust off my copy. So far, so good. Again, I’m looking forward to this one, and I’m guessing it will be my “Beach Book” in August.
