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Finding Zero: A Mathematician's Odyssey to Uncover the Origins of Numbers

Amir D. Aczel

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Oct 16, 2014 Arianna rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, first-reads, giveaway

shelfnotes.com

Dear Reader,

This book was so much more than I expected. I went in to it anticipating a somewhat dry (if layperson) look at numbers and how they came to be a part of our world. I expected chapters to be organized by history, or by theory. Instead, this book read much more like a memoir. It began with the author's adventures as a young boy as the son of a ship captain, and how he became interested in seeking out the source of our Arabic numerals. There were parts that were kind of sl shelfnotes.com

Dear Reader,

This book was so much more than I expected. I went in to it anticipating a somewhat dry (if layperson) look at numbers and how they came to be a part of our world. I expected chapters to be organized by history, or by theory. Instead, this book read much more like a memoir. It began with the author's adventures as a young boy as the son of a ship captain, and how he became interested in seeking out the source of our Arabic numerals. There were parts that were kind of slow and there were parts which I just wanted to get through, but by the end I was almost on the edge of my seat! Aczel isn't a great writer - you can tell he is more of a math-minded person than a literature one - but he really did capture my attention and got me joining him during his triumphs and missteps as he traveled the world seeking that elusive first zero. I will admit the book took some getting used to, and as I said there were certainly parts which had me questioning whether I wanted to go on, but I am so glad that I did. The story as a whole was really worth it. And, I learned so much more than I thought I would along the way!

Going back to Dr. Aczel being more of an academic, there were certain points of the book which frustrated me, mostly relating to him skimming over concepts which I either didn't fully grasp from his glazed-over explanations, or ideas or references which I would have liked him to delve into further. For instance, on page 24 he mentions Maxwell's equations in physics as a good example of the important role the zero can play in other fields outside of mathematics - but never actually tells me what those are. Granted, they could be well beyond my understanding, I get that. But I'd have loved at least a footnote that gave me further reading or some sort of basic idea of the concept. I don't like having to pull myself away from a book just to Wikipedia something to get the gist of it. Another thing he mentions a page earlier is that "the double-entry bookkeeping system used in accounting today was developed in Europe in the thirteenth century in part to avoid using negative numbers." Okay, but I am not an account, and that intrigued me - I wanted to know more. I think I am familiar with the idea, but I'd have loved an example. In yet another point in the book, he examines logic and looks at syllogisms, using shorthand "A" and "O" which I am guessing to mean "assumption" and "observation" but...I don't know, and that bothers me. It was just those little tidbits which I would have liked to have given to me, the lay reader. He is clearly not writing to the mathematician. (NB: This was an ARC, and explanatory text may have been added during the final editing stages - I'd love to see a finished copy to check.)

On the flip side, Aczel did a wonderful job of throwing in lots of little extras - from photos of his father and many of the other people he encountered there, to fascinating little histories that he scattered throughout the book which really made it the gem it turned out to be. Outside of his own quest, he shared those of fellow zero seekers, and short histories of many of the places he visited. While, for example, I had always been vaguely aware of the Khmer Rouge, I learned so much more about that awful era and what it did to Cambodia's history. It makes me eager to learn more - and I do so love books which can do that.

Yours,
Arianna ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2015 Laura marked it as to-read

Shelves: no-ebook, no-ab-d

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