{"id":38,"date":"2008-11-21T20:03:15","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T19:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=38"},"modified":"2010-11-30T21:28:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T20:28:41","slug":"christmas-gifts-for-math-geeks-like-me-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"Christmas gifts for math geeks (like me!) #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of year again – a time when your thoughts naturally turn to what Christmas presents you might buy for the geek in your life.\u00a0 If you are a geek yourself then this is an easy exercise – just think what you might want yourself and buy that.\u00a0 Geeks know what other geeks like you see!<\/p>\n

What if you are not a geek though?\u00a0 How do you work out what your nerdy friend would like most for Christmas?\u00a0 What you need, dear reader, is a geek guide – someone of the nerdy persuasion who can help you separate the geek wheat from the nerd chaff.<\/p>\n

Now if you have read much of my blog you will have probably come to the conclusion that I am a geek (or possibly a nerd – the difference is subtle<\/a>) and so maybe you are thinking that I can help you.\u00a0 Well, maybe I can – but only for a certain type of geek.<\/p>\n

You see, there are many varieties of geek<\/a> and each one has different needs and wants, thus making it impossible to write a post entitled “Christmas gifts for geeks” which will please everyone.\u00a0 So, I am going to concentrate on gifts for the mathematically inclined which includes (but is not limited to) mathematicians, scientists, engineers and, most importantly…..me!\u00a0 Many of my friends read this blog and so this post is mainly a shameless hint dropping exercise but it is possible that it will be of use to other people as well.<\/p>\n

In addition, if you actually buy any of these books using the links in this post then I will earn some commission from Amazon without it costing you a penny extra.\u00a0 Doing this helps support Walking Randomly and is greatly appreciated but I really won’t mind if you choose not to.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the mathematician in your life you almost certainly cannot go wrong by buying them a book – just make sure that they haven’t already got it!\u00a0 Another tip is ‘don’t try to be too specialised’ – advanced textbooks may well be useful but they are not (often) much fun and Christmas presents are supposed to be fun!<\/p>\n

With these thoughts in mind I will separate this section into two parts – books I own and books I wish I owned.\u00a0 In addition, I will only consider the lighter side of the mathematical spectrum (for a given value of ‘lighter’) so these books should be of interest to mathematicians of any level – from high school students to research scientists.\u00a0 The large number of equations that some of them contain may make them look like text books in some cases, but let me assure you that they are (mostly) easy reading.<\/p>\n

Books I own – and highly recommend<\/strong><\/p>\n