false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223637547m/714583.jpg 714583 6 Paul Erdös was an amazing and prolific mathematician whose life as a world-wandering numerical nomad was legendary. He published almost 1500 scholarly papers before his death in 1996, and he probably thought more about math problems than anyone in history. Like a traveling salesman offering his thoughts as wares, Erdös would show up on the doorstep of one mathematician or another and announce, "My brain is open." After working through a problem, he'd move on to the next place, the next solution.<p> Hoffman's book, like Sylvia Nasar's biography of John Nash, <I>A Beautiful Mind</I>, reveals a genius's life that transcended the merely quirky. But Erdös's brand of madness was joyful, unlike Nash's despairing schizophrenia. Erdös never tried to dilute his obsessive passion for numbers with ordinary emotional interactions, thus avoiding hurting the people around him, as Nash did. Oliver Sacks writes of Erdös: "A mathematical genius of the first order, Paul Erdös was totally obsessed with his subject--he thought and wrote mathematics for nineteen hours a day until the day he died. He traveled constantly, living out of a plastic bag, and had no interest in food, sex, companionship, art--all that is usually indispensable to a human life."<p> The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is easy to love, despite his strangeness. It's hard not to have affection for someone who referred to children as "epsilons," from the Greek letter used to represent small quantities in mathematics; a man whose epitaph for himself read, "Finally I am becoming stupider no more"; and whose only really necessary tool to do his work was a quiet and open mind. Hoffman, who followed and spoke with Erdös over the last 10 years of his life, introduces us to an undeniably odd, yet pure and joyful, man who loved numbers more than he loved God--whom he referred to as SF, for Supreme Fascist. He was often misunderstood, and he certainly annoyed people sometimes, but Paul Erdös is no doubt missed. <I>--Therese Littleton</I> 1407234 book 1998 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdös and the Search for Mathematical Truth total:417|5:141|4:184|3:80|2:13|1:0| 417 1703 607 73 4 11 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Wed Dec 24 08:21:04 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 10 06:24:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 09:46:24 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 09 13:11:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 23:52:16 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 07:40:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 02 09:07:43 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 18:45:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 04:04:54 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 04:09:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri May 29 06:28:25 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 04:42:07 -0700 2009 appreciates mathematics or mathematical research. The mathematician lived an eccentric, nomadic life, collaborating with numerous mathematicians, randomly supporting graduate students to finish their deg...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 11:44:04 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 11:59:34 -0700 2009
Erdos was an uber-eccentric nomad who travelled constantly and lived as a house guest circulating among the mathematicians who would put up with h...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Dec 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 10:11:32 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 10:19:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 19 18:21:02 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 10 21:40:38 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sun May 17 11:57:27 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 12:27:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 05 11:22:56 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 13:22:40 -0800 2009
But he did manage to knock on the door of anyone who would put up with him, to do math 20 hours a day with the assist...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Feb 10 17:01:06 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 11:02:08 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jun 18 15:02:16 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 15:05:40 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Fri Jan 30 21:10:20 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 21:11:53 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 19 04:51:38 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 06:56:39 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Apr 30 13:09:58 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 13:11:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 16:46:32 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 16:47:07 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 06:55:05 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 14 10:50:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Oct 02 19:08:06 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 19:08:59 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jun 24 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 08 17:20:25 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 17:20:51 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=714583