Originally Posted by
ebaines
Clough - I would recommend that you go to the book store (do they still exist?) or library, or visit your favorite on-line book seller, and look for one or two books in the math & sciences section that are about mathematics but are not real technical. Don't buy a text book like you had in high school, but rather narratives that talk about calculus, or number theory, or probability, and see if you (a) can get through it, and (b) does it make you eager to learn a little more. A few that I have enjoyed are:
1. "A tour of the Calculus" by Berlinski
2, "Fermat's Last Theorem" by Simon Singh
3. "The Code Book", also by Singh
A couple of others to consider:
"The Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules Our Lives" by Mlodinow
"Zero - the Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Seife
These all are pretty good at describing concepts for dabblers, and not too heavy on jargon. See what you think.