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From: weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: Funniest math book
Message-ID: <12209@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 18:42:56 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12209
Posted: Thu Mar  6 18:42:56 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 05:04:34 EST
References: <443@cubsvax.UUCP> <12180@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <470@utastro.UUCP>
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Reply-To: weemba@brahms.UUCP (Matthew P. Wiener)
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In article <470@utastro.UUCP> bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) writes:
>I share Matthew Wiener's enthusiasm for Acton, but would disagree on
>his choice of "funniest math book".  My nomination would be _Mathematics
>Made Difficult_, by Carl E. Linderholm. The title says it all. I don't
>know if it is still in print.

I forgot about Linderholm completely!  My copy was stolen years ago.

Another funny math book is Joseph Diestel _Sequences and Series in Banach
Spaces_.  Incidentally, it's the first book I've seen that makes abstract
Banach space theory seem exciting and relevant.

C[0,1] has a basis.  This is of interest--NOT because it registers C[0,1]
as a member of the "basis club," but because C[0,1] plays ....
(page 35)

Grothendieck's generalization spent some years in surprising anonymity,
although it appeared in his widely ignored Sao Paulo lecture notes ....
(page 119)

It is now time for a rare treat--an application of sociology to mathematics.
(page 194)

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720