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I was disappointed by this book. I got an impression that this is a well-known and highly acclaimed book in the field and was eager to read it. May be I misinterpreted what "the field" really is. Sure, my negative impression was caused largely by not standing up to my high expectations.
When I finished to read this book about a month ago, I intended to write a long review analyzig it fallacies with concrete examples, etc., but time has passed and my enthusiasm weared off.
First, the book pretends to be much more than it really is - to cover the whole mathematics and to present new paradigms in it, but in reality it is merely about some aspects of mmm... computational number theory (is it the right name?), like calculation of digits of pi and such curiosities and frivolities.
Second, it seems to be more a bunch of loosely related essays and observations, sometimes contradicting one another, than a coherently written treatise with unifying ideas and themes.
There are quite a few misprints.
Granted, I learned a couple of interesting things from it: how computer algebra systems evaluate certain expressions, or how one can compute digits of some numbers (notably pi with which authors are obviously obsessed) in a not consecutive way.
It is printed very nicely, and can adore a bookshelf.
I doubt I will be willing to read its sequel (this book supposed to be the first volume in a two-volumes set), or anything else from the authors in the foreseable future, for that matter.
September 29 2007, 17:40:35 UTC 4 years ago
March 24 2008, 13:54:23 UTC 4 years ago
re: Arnold book
Yesterday I got from Moscow Arnold's book with similar title (Experimental mathematics, in Russian). Very pleasant reading - pitty that it's very small...March 24 2008, 14:42:36 UTC 4 years ago
Re: Arnold book
Should be interesting. I suspect that the only common thing between these two books is the title.