Steven Strogatz takes his readers on a tour of mathematics from counting, through algebra, into calculus and out to infinity, with a discussion of Hilbert’s hotel analogy for conceptualizing Cantor’s comparison of infinite sets, in The Joy of X. Each topic is presented in a short, conversational chapter and all topics are presented at an idea level so that people can understand even if they lack a background in mathematics. The author is a tad digressive and makes odd leaps in his narrative thread but the book on the whole is interesting and I would definitely recommend it.
