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Rating: 
Summary: Not the type of book you think it is
Review: I bought this book thinking I'd get some classic Gardner puzzles with thorough explanations but that's not what I got. Instead it has chapter after chapter of boring verse with very few actual puzzles (or even the recreational math it promises). I found a mere 10-12 puzzles in the entire book and you really have to scour the book just to find them. Even the few puzzles that I did find are done in such a poor form that it's just not worth it. I think Gardner just wrote this book so he could finally get that new Mercedes SL 500 he always wanted. Bottom line, he sold out to all his loyal SCIAM fans. Shame on you Martin.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Read
Review: I have never read any books on "recreational mathematics" so didn't know quite what to expect from this book--in general I found it entertaining and interesting, with a broad range of topics, including physics, statistics, logical paradoxes, higher dimensions, etc. You don't really have to be a math person to enjoy this book; almost anyone interested in stimulating topics should find at least parts of it interesting.
The book consists of numerous short articles with bibliographies for each. If one article bores you, move on to the next... I found the articles on statistics, logical paradoxes, a 2D Universe (Planiverse) and others very interesting and enjoyable. It is important to understand that this book is not a puzzle book per se; although almost every articles includes some task for hard-core readers to perform ("Prove that...", or "How many..."), it is really intended as reading material.
A few negatives: the articles almost all seem to have been written in the 1950s or 1960s (!); each article has an addendum which attempts to bring it up to date. Although this didn't matter that much to me, since I have never read anything on recreational mathematics, I doubt that much of the material would be new for anyone that reads the topic regularly. Similarly, it would have been more interesting to discover what topics are currently "hot" in this field. Also, the author spends too much time for my taste on trivial mathematical games such as folding paper into different shapes rather than on really thought-provoking mathematical topics (purely a personal preference, I suppose).
Rating: 
Summary: a great sampling of mathematical puzzles
Review: I haven't read nearly enough Martin Gardner.
This book tickled the math centers of my brain, which only get partially used in my work as a software engineer.If graph theory, game theory, topology, and numbers don't entirely scare you away, you'll find something vaguely interesting at any page you flip to in this book, and after a few more pages will have prob learned something, AND found yourself using a part of your brain that might otherwise go unused during any given day.
Rating:
Summary: The imporatance of Mathematics
Review: Martin Gardner is the grand old man of popular mathematics. He especially likes the math behind puzzles, riddles and logical conundrums. Logic and mathematics is the source of his thinking on the Skepticism he professes in his writings on pseudoscience, religion, the paranormal, UFO's, and other outlands of science and rational thinking. This book is a collection of his best columns from Scientific American magazine. It was of the good reasons to read the magazine. Like many other things in the last few years, that publication jumped the shark at some point. Gardner was one of the reasons to still read it for a while there. Gardner, however, is not just interested in the mathematics. The men, and history of the questions is also important to him. That is because it forms a context to the questions and the discovery of the answers. Context is very important to the author. Without it, you really don't know where you are. If you like the writing of such good folks like Douglas Hofstadter, Jeremy Bernstein, Eli Maor, John Allen Paulos, Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke or Ed Regis, than you will probably like the writing of Gardner. Mathematics is something that people don't read a lot. At least not recreationally. Normally because they don't understand that it forms the basis of real logical thought. A real understanding of the modern world requires one of the understand science. And science that isn't, at least in part, based on mathematics isn't real science. It is something more of our leaders should take a real interest in. How can we expect our leaders to make good decisions on cloning or when-life-begins if they have no real understanding of science and mathematics? Which is why Martin Gardner should be considered a national treasure.
Rating:
Summary: The imporatance of Mathematics
Review: Martin Gardner is the grand old man of popular mathematics. He especially likes the math behind puzzles, riddles and logical conundrums. Logic and mathematics is the source of his thinking on the Skepticism he professes in his writings on pseudoscience, religion, the paranormal, UFO's, and other outlands of science and rational thinking. This book is a collection of his best columns from Scientific American magazine. It was of the good reasons to read the magazine. Like many other things in the last few years, that publication jumped the shark at some point. Gardner was one of the reasons to still read it for a while there. Gardner, however, is not just interested in the mathematics. The men, and history of the questions is also important to him. That is because it forms a context to the questions and the discovery of the answers. Context is very important to the author. Without it, you really don't know where you are. If you like the writing of such good folks like Douglas Hofstadter, Jeremy Bernstein, Eli Maor, John Allen Paulos, Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke or Ed Regis, than you will probably like the writing of Gardner. Mathematics is something that people don't read a lot. At least not recreationally. Normally because they don't understand that it forms the basis of real logical thought. A real understanding of the modern world requires one of the understand science. And science that isn't, at least in part, based on mathematics isn't real science. It is something more of our leaders should take a real interest in. How can we expect our leaders to make good decisions on cloning or when-life-begins if they have no real understanding of science and mathematics? Which is why Martin Gardner should be considered a national treasure.
Rating:
Summary: A fun and interesting read
Review: This book covers a wide variety of subjects. It is not a puzzle book in the strict sense of solving little teasers, but it is a book that starts one thinking in broader terms. Some paradoxes and concepts addressed in this book, that great thinkers spent time debating and questioning, are fun for us more common thinkers to consider as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting in parts, but certainly not what it claims to be
Review: This book is certainly not a "Colossal Book of Mathematics", and if you are looking for a book full of "Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems", this book is not it. In short, the title is wrong and deliberatly misleading. That should be enough for one not to buy this book at all, for why should one, when the author tries a con-artist trick with the title itself? A lot of the book is full of information about stuff that is tangential to mathematics at best, like Escher drawings and other art. Escher is fine, but devoting so many pages to the symmetry drawings of a certain Mr. Kim is way out of line with what a reader might expect of this book. The "fake" chapter is also in bad taste for a book of this nature. Obviously "once bitten twice shy" is not something Gardner believes in. Also an absence of adequate proofreading is evident. For example, the author claims that N is symmetrical about a horizontal axis. Also wrong (or incomplete) is Gardner's proof about why the second player can never guarantee a win in generalized tictactoe (the "proof" actually proves that the second player can't guarantee a win without looking at the first player's first move). More? The book says 1/0 is meaningless, and this in a chapter on infinity! I however liked some parts of the book, for example an argument against the parallel universe theory is almost literature (it is not Gardner's but somebody else's whose name I've forgotten, unfortunately Gardner does not come across as anything more than a dilettante). Other interesting bits and pieces exist, too numerous to describe here, but scarcely enough to warrant a purchase. On the other hand, if your local library has a copy of this book, it's not a bad one to borrow.
Rating:
Summary: Not the type of book you think it is
Review: This is an excellent collection of 50 of Martin Gardner's Scientific American "Mathematical Games" columns that he wrote over a number of years. Gardner wrote his column for 25 years and always managed to find an idea involving mathematics -- sometimes obscure, sometimes not -- and make it very understandable and very interesting through very clear (and often witty) writing combined with excellent illustrations (reproduced here)by Scientific American. Although these articles have been previously reproduced in the 15 collections, this collection is valuable in that Gardner (now in his mid-eighties and still writing away) has added addenda to his earlier articles that nicely update them. Although some people might think that "recreational mathematics" is a contradiction of terms, Gardner's insight and excellent writing style really do make mathematics enjoyable. At one level, the book can be thought of as a collection of puzzles, in that Gardner often uses a puzzle or otherwise poses a question to ask how a problem can be solved. The book goes way beyond a collection of puzzles, in that Gardner really provides an overview of mathematics concepts involved and goes beyond the simple solution of the puzzle to give the reader a sense of particular concepts in mathematics (e.g., topology). His approach really makes mathematics quite interesting. I am sure that Gardner's original column got many people (including myself) interested in mathematics, and I hope that this collection will help a new group of readers to develop and maintain curiosity regarding mathematics and its applications. It is, for example, something that teachers might want to refer their students to. If you haven't read other books by Gardner, this is a very good place to start -- I would also recommend his essay collection "The Night is Large" that shows his amazing range of interests (of which mathematics is one part).
Rating:
Summary: True Treasure: Stunning Collection of Popular Math Articles
Review: This is an excellent collection of 50 of Martin Gardner's Scientific American "Mathematical Games" columns that he wrote over a number of years. Gardner wrote his column for 25 years and always managed to find an idea involving mathematics -- sometimes obscure, sometimes not -- and make it very understandable and very interesting through very clear (and often witty) writing combined with excellent illustrations (reproduced here)by Scientific American. Although these articles have been previously reproduced in the 15 collections, this collection is valuable in that Gardner (now in his mid-eighties and still writing away) has added addenda to his earlier articles that nicely update them. Although some people might think that "recreational mathematics" is a contradiction of terms, Gardner's insight and excellent writing style really do make mathematics enjoyable. At one level, the book can be thought of as a collection of puzzles, in that Gardner often uses a puzzle or otherwise poses a question to ask how a problem can be solved. The book goes way beyond a collection of puzzles, in that Gardner really provides an overview of mathematics concepts involved and goes beyond the simple solution of the puzzle to give the reader a sense of particular concepts in mathematics (e.g., topology). His approach really makes mathematics quite interesting. I am sure that Gardner's original column got many people (including myself) interested in mathematics, and I hope that this collection will help a new group of readers to develop and maintain curiosity regarding mathematics and its applications. It is, for example, something that teachers might want to refer their students to. If you haven't read other books by Gardner, this is a very good place to start -- I would also recommend his essay collection "The Night is Large" that shows his amazing range of interests (of which mathematics is one part).
Rating:
Summary: A book about the unexpected and the beautiful in math.
Review: Yes, as several reviewers pointed out, the title is a bit misleading. But in my opinion it shortchanges the book! This is a book about unexpected and beautiful mathematical realities, and can be read (almost) like a novel. One pauses, of course to think, but without any pain. The clarity of the presentation makes the contents accessible to anyone. The footnoting and bibliographical information make further research easy. The illustrations are exact and plentiful. It's even beautifully laid out and printed, (I refer to the hardcover edition). An absolute classic. Give a copy to a bright young mind to counteract the horrible effects of the average math "education" prevalent in our public and private schools. If you own 100 books on math, this could still easily become your favorite.
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