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A review by jwezorek
Genius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway by Siobhan Roberts
3.0
It's a good book if you are interested in its subject, but even then gets repetitive.
Basically I am not sure who the audience is here: if you already know about Conway's actual work at any kind of nontrivial level, you aren't going to need Siobhan Robert's explication of those topics, but if you don't know anything about the relevant mathematics -- e.g. group theory, etc. -- her coverage of these topics isn't going to be enough to be helpful.
So I'd say you probably know if you should read this book. If you know who John Horton Conway is and who Martin Gardner is and who Stephen Wolfram is and who Roger Penrose is and you are interested in the weirdness of the Monster Group and the crazy fecundity of Conway Life etc. then you probably will enjoy reading through this book even if you end up skimming parts. Otherwise, I cant say I'd recommend it. A biography like this can't instill an interest in mathematics in someone.
Basically I am not sure who the audience is here: if you already know about Conway's actual work at any kind of nontrivial level, you aren't going to need Siobhan Robert's explication of those topics, but if you don't know anything about the relevant mathematics -- e.g. group theory, etc. -- her coverage of these topics isn't going to be enough to be helpful.
So I'd say you probably know if you should read this book. If you know who John Horton Conway is and who Martin Gardner is and who Stephen Wolfram is and who Roger Penrose is and you are interested in the weirdness of the Monster Group and the crazy fecundity of Conway Life etc. then you probably will enjoy reading through this book even if you end up skimming parts. Otherwise, I cant say I'd recommend it. A biography like this can't instill an interest in mathematics in someone.