Jonathan Beckman
Eucliding Me?
Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics
By Alex Bellos
Bloomsbury 448pp £18.99
There are undoubtedly physicists who write novels and biochemists who philosophise but I don't know any arty types who spend their evenings curled up with some critically acclaimed number theory or multidimensional calculus. Unless you choose to study a maths-related discipline at university, then the subject – bar some frantic mental arithmetic at the supermarket till – is pretty much dead to you. This sparky new book demonstrates quite how much we're missing.
Maths has the remarkable capacity to give birth to wonder: the pleasurable incredulity that occurs when the mind's conceptual limits are breached by the compulsion of logical proof. But, as Alex Bellos discovers as he jaunts around the globe meeting child abacus prodigies in Japan and celebrity numerologists,
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm