Journey into Geometries (Spectrum) 1st THUS Edition

The book is styled after a frequently-used device: "Alice in X", where X can be any kind of space which you wish to explain to the gentle reader. In this instance, Alice, along with Lewis Carroll and a Doctor WhatIf, gets to explore X=hyperbolic geometries. Poincare's disk is explained in great detail, along with lots of examples and exercises. Characters from "Wonderland" and "Looking Glass" make appearances at various places. Not a book you can read as a novel but fiction is fused completely with the mathematics (except for chapter-end problems). And the author does not waste much time diving into deep geometry so it is not an easy read. Uses a lot of puns, as is to be expected, some good and some groan-worthy. She's thrown in a few poems / limericks / doggerels as well along the way.The foreword to the book compares it directly to Synge's "Kandelman's Krim". The book is an enormous amount of fun if you like geometry. Heartily recommend it to anyone who loves mathematical toys in the abstract (though nothing abstract about geometry on a sphere or on a horse's back...).The Ninth Pawn of White: A Book of Unwritten Verses.Quiescence: Musings Against A Setting Sun

The only reason why I bought this book was because it was required for my Geometry class. I thought it would be an interesting book, but ohhh my godd was I wrong. The writing was very dry and I honestly understood nothing from it! My professor also sucked at explaining the content, so I was confused the entire semester! It was a waste of my money!!!

I love the idea of the book, to explain math functions in a mix narrative/ theoretical fabric. I would not say the narrative is superficial, but rather, the explanation of "hierarchies" are determined by social relations to class and gender, not influence by the advent of informatics and computer science. The variables, and punchline jokes are not contemporary, quite jarring at female intelligence and acceptance in technical occupations. Certain areas of academia did not exist when this book was writen. I would not recommend this book as assigned reading, because it is very hard to distinguish what you need to believe in order to understand the mathematics, mixed with the social injustice accusations of how the world 'is' that certainly ride the tolerance of my attention. I would, perhaps, read this out loud to young students, after practice and editing of the material.