A reader alerts me. I know, I shouldn’t post this stuff… but you would, too.

“Derb–In Barnes & Noble the other day; noticed books about math on the shelves up front. Berlinsky, “Infinite Ascent”; Chaitin, “Meta Math”; Goldstein, “Incompleteness”. Could this be a trend? Is the reading public ready for the world of math? Then I took a look at the Amazon reviews. The Washington Post is not at all impressed with Berlinsky, saying (among other things): Yes, it’s hard to explain mathematics, but it’s not impossible: Classics like Douglas R. Hofstadter’s ‘Goedel, Escher, Bach’ and more recent books like John Derbyshire’s ‘Prime Obsession’ demonstrate that a conscientious author can tell clear stories about deep and difficult mathematics, with room for some literary flourishes along the way. “The other two appear to be pretty good. And if reviewers keep holding up P.O. as a benchmark, I may yet have to find an autographed copy.”

Goldstein I reviewed here. Berlinski here (but see here). Chaitin’s book I didn’t review but I read it & it’s excellent.