Interesting; kind of fluffy in places; way too many examples involving cricket. I'll likely dip into it again. ( )

A lot of the math was difficult for me to understand but I shined through the equations and thought some of the chapters were interesting.

This author has written a number of wonderfully informative books on math and cosmology, of which we have read at least half. Although he is a theoretical physicist, he writes in a conversational style that is non-scientist-friendly.

In the introduction of this book Barrow gives a short summary of different views about what mathematics is. One view holds that it is “a set of eternal truths that already ‘exist’ in some real sense and are found by mathematicians. The second sees it as “an infinitely large game with rules, which we invent and whose consequences we then pursue.” A third opinion defines mathematics as “the catalogue of all possible patterns.” Moreover, although the number of possible patterns is infinite, it turns out that a very small number of simple patterns characterize much of reality. It is this third view that shows why art and mathematics actually have so much in common, because pleasing patterns tend to be associated with great works of art. As Manil Suri points out (in his discussion of Pi), "This is characteristic of mathematics, whereby elementary formulas can give rise to surprisingly varied phenomena."

Barrow demonstrates this premise in very pithy chapters that can be read in any order, ranging on topics from the design of art galleries themselves to the works they contain; from music, to book design, to sculpture, literature, dance, and music. Some of the essays have very little to do with art as one might conventionally define it, but they are interesting nonetheless.

While Barrow writes clearly with a minimum of equations and the inclusion of many illustrations, it is a bit too “math-y” for my taste. However, I do love discovering new aspects of the intersection of math and art and their surprising co-evolution. For those, like me, who find this book - which is witty and fairly elementary - fascinating but still not basic enough, I have two other recommendations that focus more on the art than on the math.

One is Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light by Leonard Slain (William Morrow Books, 1991) and the other is Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, And the Spiritual by Lynn Gamwell (Princeton University Press, 2002). Both emphasize the way in which paradigm changes in science spurred revolutions in art. Barrow’s emphasis is the opposite in a way; he shows you how art, or more specifically, patterns, reveal the math behind them.

The three of these books together would make a wonderful complement for anyone seeking to understand the close relationship between developments in math and in the arts.

Evaluation: Math and science fans will really enjoy this book, as will those who love finding out how the patterns that please us are not just random. Barrow also has very readable books on cosmology, such as The Infinite Book, and The Book of Universes. In addition, he has written 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World, which is very similar in style and format to the book being reviewed here, and is also very entertaining. ( )

The book is comprised of 100 short chapters of 2-3 pages in length. I spent a week reading this book (it feels more like reading a blog where the author's goal is brevity), and a day later....I can probably name 5 memorable topics, and 2 were interesting enough for me to wikipedia the idea presented in the short chapter. And probably half the topics will be very familiar to those people who would possibly check this book out from the library. The book seems to be a series of "abstract" summaries of 100 math-y sort of topics. And you must go elsewhere for any real amount of detail. ( )

100 unconnected unordered blog-entry-like articles explaining the world, but not, as the subtitle suggests, always using mathematics. Fun stuff but the articles were not always put together well. I have found other similar books more stimulating in terms of content and style. Nonetheless it was a good easy read. ( )