interesting maths books?

[JudgeRinderSays]

Ds birthday next week.i know he has really enjoyed reading all the Simon Singh books and I wondered if anyone could suggest any other 'popular' maths books he might enjoy?
Obviously he is having a lot of less 'studious' presents too.i don't want to sound like a pushy parent

Alex Bellos is great and Alex's Adventures in Numberland is one of his popular maths books.

Here are some Maths books recommended by DS's school to read (or 'dip into' as they say encouragingly ) for preparation for AS Maths:

? The music of primes by Marcus Du Sautoy
? Fermat’s last theorem by Simon Singh
? Zero: the biography of a dangerous idea by Charles Seife
? A history of pi by Petr Beckmann
? Game theory: a very short introduction by K G Binmore
? An Imaginary Tale: The Story of i by Paul Nahin (Further mathematics)
? Longitude by Dava Sobel

you might be interested in the Physics list too as there's quite a bit of maths content there:

? A Beautiful Mind - a biography of the mathematician John Nash
Sylvia Nasar
? Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines
Jim Al-Khalili
? Catching Cold - an investigation into the flu epidemic that killed millions
Pete Davies
? Chaos - you've seen it on Jurassic Park, here it is...
James Gleik
? The Character of Physical Law
Richard Feynman
? Clouds in a Glass of Beer - a journey through atmospheric physics
Craig F Bohren
? Does God Play Dice? - easy to read journey through maths stuff
Ian Stewart
? The Elegant Universe - the best thing written about theories of everything
Brian Greene
? The Emperor's New Mind – explores the brain and artificial intelligence
Roger Penrose
? Fear of Physics - now, now, don't be frightened…
Lawrence Krauss
? Five Biggest Ideas in Science - a brief introduction to the meaty stuff
C Wynn & AWiggins
? Genius - brilliant account of the life of Richard Feynman
James Gleik
? In search of the Big Bang - an up to date account of…
John Gribbon
? The Last Three Minutes - this really is the end…
Paul Davies
? Nature’s Numbers - how maths is found in everything we look at
Ian Stewart
? The Odd Quantum - an intro to quantum mechanics
Sam Tremain
? The Origin of the Universe - how did it all start
John D. Barrow
? QED: The strange theory of light and matter - a brilliant intro
Richard Feynman
? The Quantum Dot - how physics makes computers faster
Richard Turton

DS2 liked Alex's Adventures in Wonderland and the one about The Simpsons.

*Wonderland? Numberland.

How old is he? Was thinking Murderous Maths series, but he might be too old for that now.

For novels, rather than non-fiction, I love Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis, very mathsy and history of mathsy, like Singh's books. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is also a fab book (way better than the film) with maths running through it - chaos theory and fractals.

Of the books on the list above, really don't get Emperor's New Mind by Penrose for a child's birthday, it's bloody unreadable!

Thanks for that recommendation, noblegiraffe, just bought a copy of Uncle Petros for me!

Why Do Buses Come in Threes?: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life: The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life.
Eastaway, Wyndham

One of my favourites.

Anything by Ian Stewart will probably be good

Anything by Ian Stewart will probably be good - although bear in mind he writes academic texts too: his Galois Theory textbook is great but is typically a third-year undergraduate book. You are really pushy parent if you give him that!

I would add Flatland by Abbott.

I enjoyed Connected by Simon Denman. It's a novel with themes of maths running through.

The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke & Fred Pohl

Its about a young Sri Lankan maths genius who solves Fermat’s Last Theorem.