Rating: 
Summary: Great Recreational Reading! Thinking Required.
Review: What a great book. This will stay in my library forever. It is rich with great illustration, well written explanations and a nice balance between fun and intellect. Michael Schneider really did a nice job on this one. If you liked geometry because it was "fun", you will love this book. It is not too steeped in mathemtical formulas (which usually put you to sleep and are an affectation of a boring author) but it does not shy away from using math theory when needed. The treatment of the golden-mean was really nice. I derived hours of pleasure from this book and am sure you will to. Overall - Good balance between pictures/geometry/math-theory/natural&historical-speculation. Hard to put down - even harder to loan out, but you do.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: what can i say that all the other reviews haven't? This book is fascinating, and should be read at least by anybody with a passing interest in numbers, philosophy, ancient ways of seeing the world, and of course, mathematics and geometry, if not by everybody. But this book is so well written that just about anybody can grasp the concepts. I had always wished there was a book like this, and when I came across it, I was not disappointed in the least. Probably one of the most interesting books I have ever read, and I re-read it at least once a year.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye-opening, yet flawed...
Review: What I find fascinating about this book is the way it explores relationships between numbers, and why geometry is not as artificial and arbitrary as most people think today. For example, the REASON why bees construct honeycombs from hexagonal cells.The author knows his Pythagoras, but unfortunately he plays fast and loose with a few other things. One example is the "red devil" image of Set that doesn't exist anywhere in ancient Egyptian literature or art. And throughout the book he seems to go a little too far into New Age mystical fuzziness for my tastes. Overall I'd recommend the book, but any statements that aren't purely mathematical, take with a grain of salt. The math itself is fascinating enough without the embellishments.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Excellent Excellent
Review: What more can I say! This is an amazing amount of research about the laws of nature and the human race! Great work!
Rating:
Summary: Awakened!
Review: When i read the book, i was awakened! And many secrets were revealed that were protected by elite societies in the past. Numbers shape the world, and the book explains why. In fact, it's common sense when you come to think about it. All shapes are numbers with appearance. Numbers cannot be seen. But they are manifested in the square as 4, triangle as 3. And to realize that all shapes can be derived by the vescica pesces, is amazing. Two circles that overlap at their centers. It's a metaphore that teaches us people how to interact with each other -- in a way that two beings should touch each other's centers ( but this is not included in the book...just a thought ).
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating trip through symbolic math
Review: Who knew that our universe is such a spectacularly ordered place? Michael Schneider takes us on a fantastic voyage through the primary numbers one through ten, and shows us how numbers and geometry have helped shape our world and the cosmos. Why is a manhole cover round? Because a circle, whose diameter is everywhere equal, is the only shape that won't fall into its own hole. Three symbolizes harmony -- life has a beginning, a middle and an end. Life forms are often characterized by pentagons (cut an apple in half crosswise and look at the seeds), while six is the number of structure-function-order, as seen in the hexagonal symmetry of crystals and snowflakes. This book is by no means for math majors only; even math dummies like this reviewer will find themselves totally caught up. Art and design students especially will appreciate the almost infinite variety of possible designs suggested within each primary number and the basic shapes (circle, square and triangle). Schneider also shows how, with a compass, pencil and straightedge, one can construct one's own symbolic universe. I came away from this book not only enlightened on the subject of symbolic math, but blown away by the relationship between geometry and religion. Because reading this book makes one realize that the universe is not random, as we see it within our limited scope, but has a definite function and order, and perhaps only the God who created it according to His plan can see it whole.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating trip through symbolic math
Review: Who knew that our universe is such a spectacularly ordered place? Michael Schneider takes us on a fantastic voyage through the primary numbers one through ten, and shows us how numbers and geometry have helped shape our world and the cosmos. Why is a manhole cover round? Because a circle, whose diameter is everywhere equal, is the only shape that won't fall into its own hole. Three symbolizes harmony -- life has a beginning, a middle and an end. Life forms are often characterized by pentagons (cut an apple in half crosswise and look at the seeds), while six is the number of structure-function-order, as seen in the hexagonal symmetry of crystals and snowflakes. This book is by no means for math majors only; even math dummies like this reviewer will find themselves totally caught up. Art and design students especially will appreciate the almost infinite variety of possible designs suggested within each primary number and the basic shapes (circle, square and triangle). Schneider also shows how, with a compass, pencil and straightedge, one can construct one's own symbolic universe. I came away from this book not only enlightened on the subject of symbolic math, but blown away by the relationship between geometry and religion. Because reading this book makes one realize that the universe is not random, as we see it within our limited scope, but has a definite function and order, and perhaps only the God who created it according to His plan can see it whole.
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