A Tour of the Calculus Library Binding – 26 Jun. 2008

The point of this book, like another by Berlinski (One, Two, Three) is overwhelmed by his unnecessary, floridly descriptive narratives and pointless references to his supernatural beliefs. It's a ramble. If you want to learn about maths, read De Sautoy et al.

The two stars are for the technical content, which is basically sound. But I can't give any stars for Berlinski's writing style. It's as though he's trying (far too hard) to write a classic novel with some maths in it. The idea of conveying some fairly complex maths by using flowery, descriptive, even evocative language is in principle an interesting one, but the prose is so purple as to make it hard to make out what point he's trying to make, and in many places obscures the meaning completely. If you want to read purple prose, try Tolstoy. If you want to understand calculus, try the Open University. Either way, don't bother with this book.