Zero to Lazy Eight: The Romance Numbers by Alexander Humez (PDF)

Description

From Simon & Schuster, Zero to Lazy Eight is Alexander Humez’s exploration into the romance of numbers fit with free-forming essays related to folklore, idioms, and mathematical diversions.A collection of essays blending elements of linguistics and mathematics provides an educational glimpse into the social history and culture of common phrases and colloquial expressions.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Alexander Humez is the author of Zero to Lazy Eight, a Simon & Schuster book.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐As the title of my review suggests, I did not enjoy this book. Which is somewhat surprising given that I am fascinated by mathematics and generally enjoy reading about etymology, the two subjects on which the book is purportedly focused.However, it seems as if Humez, Humez, and Maguire simply made a large pile of every fact and bit of trivia that they could think of and then tossed them semi-randomly into the book with a shovel.The book is divided into fifteen chapters, titled “Zero” through “Thirteen” and, the final one “Lazy Eight” (i.e., infinity). This might lead one to surmise that each chapter would be focused on mathematical and linguistic matters related to that particular number. But the authors digress so far and so frequently from the alleged subject matter of a chapter as to leave me not only surprised, but rather stupefied, wondering what I was reading and why it was there in the first place. The Library Journal review referred to the chapters as “free-form essays” which pretty much says it.This book strikes me as an attempt by the authors, unintentional no doubt, to show off how much they know, rather than to maintain a focus on their subject matter. That combined with some weak attempts at humor does not an enjoyable read make.There is certainly some interesting information to be found in this book, if one is able to maintain one’s concentration as one slogs through it all. However, as for myself, I find it easier to retain what I’ve read when there is some logic and structure to the material presented. Really, I think, this is a book of mathematical and linguistic trivia and should have been formatted accordingly.I’m not sure that there is much to be found here that can’t be found elsewhere and, given that there are so many good books on these subjects, it’s hard to justify spending time on this one.

⭐The Humez brothers, Alexander and Nicholas, are joined by Joseph Maguire in this exploration of numbers and the way we talk and think about them: four-square, dresses to the nines, at sixes and sevens, and so on. This book does for number theory (the most accessible branch of mathematics, and something we use every day without thinking about it) what the previous Humez bros. books ABC Et Cetera and Alpha to Omega did for Roman and Greek culture respectively: Everything you needed to know but never got around to asking (or did but your math teacher told you to siddown and shuddup while the guys with the slide rules in the front row performed mind-boggling computations with infuriating facility). This is math for the rest of us, from the viewpoint of its social embedding. Lots of anecdotes and curiosities here, such as the Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg problem and the surprising proof that there are several sizes of infinity. Occasionally dry but never dull, and Maguire’s voice blends so well with the other two authors as to make this a virtually seamless collaboration.

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