Smoothly written and full of entertaining lore.
Essays on the history and symbolism of familiar numbers.
Crumpacker (The Sex Life of Food: When Body and Soul Meet to Eat, 2006) goes through the digits in sequence. The essay on one is typical. It begins with generalizations: One is the beginning, from which all else grows, but before we became fully human, even one meant nothing to us. This segues into a discussion of counting, with reference to such early artifacts as a baboon thighbone incised with notches, much like those on a gunslinger’s pistol. Later came baked clay tokens to symbolize the items being counted—for example, jars of wine in a shipment. The next step was simply to draw the correct number of items directly on a clay tablet: the first shipping invoice. Crumpacker moves on from these simple uses of a number—and of the words for it—to more metaphorical and mystical uses, as for example the Pythagorean philosophers’ attribution of various qualities to particular numbers. The book runs the gamut of counting numbers up to twelve, with a special nod to zero, the key to our modern system of mathematical notation. It then jumps to a hundred, a thousand, a million and finally to almost unimaginably large quantities like the googol (one followed by a hundred zeroes) and googolplex (one followed by a googol of zeroes). At each step, the author remarks on a number’s inherent qualities. Six is a “perfect” number, for example, because “it’s equal to the sum of its parts. Six can be divided by one, two, and three, and if you add these numbers the sum is six. Perfection.” Crumpacker also provides folklore, such as which numbers are considered lucky. While mathematicians are likely to scoff, those who blanch at the notion of long division may find this the most entertaining section of the book.
Smoothly written and full of entertaining lore.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36005-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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