Rating: 
Summary: Not a math person but...
Review: I didn't read this book by choice; I got stuck with Paul Erdos as a school project for my High School algebra class. Needless to say, I wasn't all that enthused. However, this book presented so well and so entertainingly this math genius that I'd recommend it to anyone. We learn about the inner world of math geniuses, the lines of progress that have been made in the twentieth century, and the problem solving process itself.Paul Erdos in presented in perfect form, this book is what biographies should be. His relationship with his family, women, peers, and young people are all apparent. His quirks and his genius for numbers. We also get to see the effects of the Cold War political climate in the world on intelligentsia. On top of all that, you even get a little math too.
Rating:
Summary: Even if you aren't a math person.....
Review: Even if you are not a math person you will find this book enjoyable. During every sitting there was at least one story of Erdos's witicisms or crazyness that made me laugh out loud.
His accomplishments are especially touching given what he came from. One of the other reviewers commented that this book did not go into detail regarding his mathematical achievements. I think that is a strength because who wants to read boring numbers and symbols? Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Meeting Paul Erdos
Review: 268 pages plus 16 photo pages, exciting to read, revealing the life and personality of Paul Erdos, a great and very
excentric number theorist of the 20-th century. The author
knew Erdos personally and speaks out quite openly, nearly
too openly, about private details of Erdos' life. Since
Erdos was only and always concerned with mathematics it is a
special achievement of the author to create such a
fascinating book. The excentricities of Erdos, on the other
hand, lead to many funny situations, which the author seems
to have collected from many of Erdos remaining friends and
which stories made easier to bring the mathematicians bio
to life.
Some simple math pops up here and there to give the reader an
idea about the topics, Erdos was concerned with.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Great
Review: This book weaves a biography and interesting math lessons gracefully.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment.
Review: This book is not really a biography of mathematician Paul Erdos [pronounced: "Air-dish"] (1913-1996), who specialized in number theory. Instead, it's a disorganized collection of anecdotes about Erdos, most of which portray him as absent-minded, sloppy, and demanding as a house guest. There's almost no discussion of his achievements in mathematics. Erdos lived only for his work, yet this book considers everything except his work. The reader doesn't learn why Erdos was famous -- only that he was an eccentric genius. To expand the book to over 200 pages, the author included largely irrelevant material on the history of mathematics. This book was a waste of time and effort.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Look at a Great Mathematician
Review: The story of Paul Erdos was fantastic and fascinating. To begin with, he had no home. His entire earthly belongings were in two suitcases; one held a few items of clothing, the other was full of mathematical papers which accompanied him as he traveled around the world going from one mathematics conference to another, pausing long enough only to deposit some works in an archive at the home of Ronald Graham and Fan Chung, a husband-and-wife team of remarkable mathematicians in their own right. Paul Erdos was known as the greatest of mathematical collaborators; he co-authored far more papers with other mathematicians than did anyone else. The extent of his collaborations with other matheamticians has given rise to what is now known as the 'Erdos number' which is simply this: If you co-authored a paper with Erdos you have an Erdos number of one, if you wrote a paper with someone who wrote a paper with Erdos, your Erdos number is two, and so forth and so on. As far as I know, the highest Erdos number is eight. Approximately five hundred mathematitians have an Erdos number of one, the number having an Erdos number of two or higher is well into the thousands; a compete listing is maintained by Jerry Grossman of Oakland University. Erdos had virtually his own language, to him the Unites States was 'Sam' (for Uncle Sam) and the Soviet Union was 'Joe' (for its long-time leader Joseph Stalin.) Women were 'bosses' and men were 'slaves'. A person 'died' when he or she ceased doing mathematics; when that same person actually expired, he or she 'left'. This book gives a good look at what goes on in the mind of a mathematician. While there is plenty of mathematics in this volume, the book is written in such a manner as to be understandable by anyone with a high-school education; little or no specialized training in mathematics is required to reap full enjoyment from it. Even if you are unfamiliar with such concepts as Mersenne or Fermat primes or repunits, this book will be both entertaining and enlightening. I believe this book is a better 'read' than Sylvia Nasar's "A Beautiful Mind;" the major focus of the latter book was not so much about mathematics as it was about schizophrenia. There is no doubt that Paul Erdos was one of the most extraordinary people you could ever wast to meet. This work belongs in the library of any person who may be even the least bit curious about what goes on on the mind of an extraordinary human being.
Rating:
Summary: Affectionate and balanced portrait of a mathematical genius
Review: I very much enjoyed this biography (Hoffman calls it "in large part a work of oral history") of the legendary Hungarian mathematician, Paul Erdös. Hoffman's relaxed style with his attention to detail and concrete expression makes it a pleasure to read. You don't need to know any mathematics. Hoffman mentions the math and occasionally goes lightly into it, but for the most part the focus is on the eccentric and loveable mathematician himself and his many friends and collaborators. In fact, the title is somewhat ironic since Erdös was very much a people person, a man who loved and was loved by others. It is only in the case of "romantic" love that Erdös loved only numbers. By the way, Hoffman does indeed go into Erdös's sex life in a completely tasteful and PG-13 sort of way. He was a man who dearly loved his mother and children but practiced a deep and abiding celibacy all his life. His friends made many jokes about his uneasiness with "bosses" (his pet name for women) and once made a bet with him that he could not go to a burlesque show. He did however, but took off his glasses so he couldn't see anything. Erdös was a pure mathematician, a child prodigy who fell in love with numbers at an early age and never lost his love while wandering over the entire globe searching for collaborators. He was himself a caricature of the absent-minded professor, a man who asked others to tie his shoes for him, a man who could not drive, who worked nineteen hours at day at mathematics, often calling his friends up at four in the morning to share an insight. He paid no attention to his appearance, cared nothing for literature, the arts, sports, etc., only for his beloved math. He had a way with children and an ability to impose on his friends, often arriving unannounced at their houses and staying for days or weeks at a time. He freely gave away his money to any number of charities, and sometimes to outright strangers on a whim. He cared nothing for worldly goods. He didn't even like applied mathematics, referring to colleagues who had gone that route, as being "dead." Indeed, only children and pure mathematics delighted him. There's a child-like simplicity to the man that charms us. Hoffman's book reflects this as a kind of fairy tale life lived in delight in spite of all the horror going on in the world. There is a pristine beauty to living one's life so incredibly focused on one thing. In a sense it is like an addiction and in another it is like an all-consuming love. It is the kind of life few of us could ever live (or would want to live), but it is the kind of life we can admire and read about with pleasure. Hoffman sometimes slips away from Erdös to write about his family and friends, especially about Ronald Graham, Erdös's long-time friend and collaborator, a very interesting man himself, a world class juggler and a practical as well as theoretical mathematician. Hoffman recalls some Hungarian history, some Cold War history, and relates anecdotes from friends and family. He devotes a chapter to Fermat's Last Theorem, Fibonacci numbers, the Prime Number Theorem, etc., and then part of a chapter to the Monty Hall dilemma and the tussle between Parade magazine columnist Marilyn vos Savant and her detractors. There is also a lot of humor, which is appropriate because Erdös liked witticisms and used humor as a way to deal with the world. "Soon I will be cured of the incurable disease of life," he is quoted as saying on page 173. He adds, a little later, still in a sardonic mood, "Television...is something the Russians invented to destroy American education." There are some photos, a bibliography and an index. Hoffman does not glorify Erdös as much as some would like, but this is an affectionate and balanced, very interesting portrait of a true original and a great mathematical genius.
Rating: 
Summary: Oversimplified, confused and inaccurate
Review: I knew Paul Erdos since I was a small child. I consider that this book, and, even more, the blurb about it, misrepresent him quite seriously. According to the book, Hoffman met Erdos only once; and his portrayal of him in the book is simultaneously oversimplified, confused and inaccurate. I am giving the book two stars rather than one, because at least it is better and more accurate than the blurb about it.
Erdos is portrayed as narrowly obsessed with mathematics, to the point of almost being a freak. He is described in the blurb as having none of the normal interests in sex, companionship, art or even food. While I don't usually describe the personal characterstics of my friends and acquaintances in a public review, Erdos has for some reason become so much of a topic for public discussion that I feel that I should respond to some of the wilder remarks. It is true that Erdos was celibate, but he had a very great liking for companionship, and friendships were important to him..
He disliked being alone, and mostly managed to avoid being alone. He had a very large number of friends, to whom he was very warm and caring and extremely generous. Yes, he could be a tiring guest, but he gave far more than he ever took, and far more than most people ever do. He gave absolutely unstintingly of his time, mathematical ideas, money (whenever he had any) and influence (whenever he had any). He always made very special efforts not only to visit and help his friends when ill or in difficulties, but to do the same with the friends and relations of his friends. Not all his friends were mathematicians. Notably, he was extremely fond of children. He carried out his desire for companionship into his professional life, where he carried out a great deal of his work in collaboration with others, and had more collaborators than any other scientist of whom I have ever heard. As regards food, he had a great appreciation of good food, and would for example, sometimes reciprocate his hosts by taking them to good restaurants. While he did not have a special interest in art, he was very fond of nature, and also had strong interests in languages, history and politics. He was certainly not a "Man Who Loved Only Numbers". He was indeed obsessed with mathematics; but this was his least unusual characteristic. Many people pursue interests and careers obsessively; Erdos differed from others in being infinitely more creative and successful in his chosen pursuit than most others; in the extent to which he combined this obsession with an intelligent interest in other subjects; and in pursuing creative mathematics into old age.
The book and the blurb about it, also make me uneasy in my professional capacity as a developmental and cognitive psychologist who studies individual differences in cognition. While few people are as outstandingly talented in any direction as Erdos in mathematics, many people - a far larger number than had at one time been thought - are uneven in their abilities. It is both scientifically inaccurate, and a potential source of distress to the individuals concerned, to assume that such unevennesses are solely a matter of attention and focus. Thus, the implication that Erdos' physical clumsiness and difficulties with certain practical activities were due solely to a narrow focus on mathematics is both unfair to Erdos personally and a disservice to the many less eminent people who are physically clumsy or have other specific cognitive or motor difficulties.
If anyone is interested in reading a good biography of Erdos, I would strongly recommend them to read Schecter's "My Brain Is Open" - much better than this ... book.
Rating:
Summary: Why pick on special people?
Review: Calling a great mathematician crazy and a speed/ drug addict isn't good. It doesn't advance mathematics.... Erdos was very nearly an Autistic Savant. His mother's love and care saved him. A life that might have been spent in an institution became that of one of mathematic's all time greats. He wasn't "perfect", but he was unparalleled in history in his in long term productivity and his teaching on the individual level. For this he should be praised and not run down by the "facts" journalistically. Not all mathematics people are "crazy". It takes a special kind of mind to appreciate some problems and solve them! Erdos was a very special person whose memory should be protected and not abused as this book does. This level of honesty does no one any good. I can not encourage the running down of the memory of great men: too much of that goes on these days.
Rating:
Summary: Just didn't do it for me...
Review: Reading this book made me want to write one on Slavic languages, or perhaps another subject that I know absolutely nothing about. It seems all so easy. Here we have a self-declared non mathematician, who claims to have written the story of one of the more brilliant mathematical minds of recent memory. But his grasp of mathematical concepts is totally lacking. I wish the author attempted to provide a brief exposition of Erdos' work. Unfortunately, he only seems capable of mentioning here and there that Erdos was a brilliant number theorist. The author tries to make it up by writing about other famous mathematicians. Thus a rehashing of old routines, such as the Hilbert hotel, Cantor's search for infinity and a couple of attempts at explaining diagonalization, the effects of Godel's seminal paper on the foundations of mathematics, etc. All of these nice stories have now been thoroughly told and retold by Dunham, Pickover, Aczel, Singh, and other pop math writers. Perhaps the author wanted to concentrate on Erdos' human side? Yes, perhaps, but not in this book. The two impressions that he leaves me with are that Erdos was an amphetamine addict, and that he expected everyone to do everything for him (including asking his friend's wife to clip his toenails). Not very deep insight, and definitely not a satisfying impression of what made this mathematical genius tick. For those of us who want to learn about Erdos, let's keep waiting for another book. This one is just not it.
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