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Recommended Reading

Contest Mathematics #

• Problem Solving through Problems by Loren Larson
  • UToronto Library
• Putnam and Beyond by Răzvan Gelca
  • UToronto Library
• Problem Solving Strategies by Arthur Engel
  • UToronto Library
• The art and craft of problem-solving by Paul Zeitz
  • UToronto Library

Puzzle-y Math #

• The art of mathematics - take two : tea time in Cambridge by Bollobás, Béla
  • UToronto Library
• The art of mathematics : coffee time in Memphis by Bollobás, Béla
  • UToronto Library

General Mathematics #

• Concepts of Modern Mathematics by Ian Stewart
  • UToronto Library
  • This book is a light and conversational introduction to lots of cool ideas in modern mathematics. It had a big impact on me when I first read it as an undegraduate. What’s a set? It’s bag with stuff in it. What’s a set of sets? Well, a bag full of bags!
• Mathematical Snapshots by Hugo Steinhaus
  • UToronto Library
  • This is a collection of curious and interesting facts in mathematics. It is not expository, and contains no proofs, but gives an idea of what mathematics is about. Lots of great topics for seminar talks.
• Flavors and Seasons by Luke Walcott
  • The Flavors and Seasons Project FAQ

Fiction #

• Fictions by Borges

  • UToronto Library
  • As a highschool student, I was absolutely obssessed with Borges. I read everything that I could get my hands on. Eventually, I started to learn Spanish to read him in the original. Fictions is an astounding collection of short stories. It simultaneously sparked my interest in philosophy and mathematics.
    • The Library of Babel
    • Pierre Menard, the Author of Don Quixote
    • The Babylon Lottery
    • Funes, the Memorious

• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

  • UToronto Library
  • Deep and philosophically fascinating science fiction. When I was a graduate student, we passed this one around the office and all had our favourite stories. My favourites are:
    • Understand
    • The Story of Your Life
    • Seventy-Two Letters

Non-Fiction #

• The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
  • UToronto Library
  • Short, deep, thought-provoking essays by a modern Montaigne. Lewis Thomas was an American physician and essayist who wrote broadly about medicine, science, culture, and biology.
    • The Music of This Sphere (local copy)
    • Your Very Good Health
    • Social Talk
    • The World’s Biggest Membrane
• The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture by Frank Wilson
  • UToronto Library

Productivity and Life Skills #

• How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein
  • UToronto Library
  • This is the original guide to time management. It introduced the hugely influence “ABC method” of setting priorities. The language and examples are a bit dated, but the content and ideas are timeless. Every year or so, I dip into it and learn some new insight about managing my time and priorities.
• How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
  • Toronto Public Library
  • The cartoonist behind Dilbert explains the principles of that he uses succeed in life. The book draws on a lot of experience in the corporate world, and extensive reading about psychology. Chapter 30 “Happiness” (local copy) preaches the importance of: flexible schedules, sleep, diet, exercise, and imagination.

Reading and Writing #

• Professor as Writers by Robert Boice
  • UToronto Library
  • Summarizes decades of original research on the writing habits of academics. It gives concrete evidence that daily writing with self-imposed boundaries leads to highly productive scholarship. A must read for anyone doing academic writing. For another guide to this style of working, without so much background, see How to Write a Lot by Silvia (UToronto Library).
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
  • UToronto Library
  • The Classic introduction to style and writing well. People take issue with it sometimes, and there are inaccuracies in it. However, it is The Classic and everyone ought to read it several times.
• The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
  • UToronto Libary
  • This is a lot heavier than Strunk and White, but much more accurate and well thought out. Definitely a deep-dive in to style. I learned a lot about linguistics from reading this book.
• Clear and Simple as the Truth by Thomas and Turner
  • UToronto Library
  • This book presents a very philosophical take on style. It describes the classic style as practiced by Montaigne, Descartes, etc. This book deeply influenced the way that I think about the purpose of expository writing.
• How to Read a Book by Adler and van Doren
  • UToronto Libary
  • A dense and technical book about doing textual research in the humanities. Full of insightful distinctions about levels of reading and techniques for skimming and summarizing material.
• How to Take Smart Notes by Ahrens
  • UToronto Library
  • This is a deep-dive in to note-taking techniques and zettelkasten (German: box of notecards). It advocates for writing very concise notes but connecting them in a hyperlinked manner. It is very preachy and over-simplifies the complexities of the writing process. For a contrasting view, see Rank and File by Minto.
• Keshav, Srinivasan. “How to read a paper.” ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review 37.3 (2007): 83-84. (local)
  • There is a bunch of great advice on reading papers hosted by Papers We Love, a community which primarily focusses on computer science papers.

Potential Reads #

These are less recommendations than texts that I would like read for fun with some people. Many of them would be suitable for Seminar. If any of these appeal to you, please let me know.

• Sallows, Lee. “On self-tiling tile sets.” Mathematics Magazine 85.5 (2012): 323-333. (doi)
  • Wikipedia
• Dörrie, Heinrich. 100 great problems of elementary mathematics. Courier Corporation, 2013.
• Sallows, Lee. “More On Self-Tiling Tile Sets.” Mathematics Magazine 87.2 (2014): 100-112. (doi)
• Halmos, Paul R. “The heart of mathematics.” The American Mathematical Monthly 87.7 (1980): 519-524.
• Conway, John H. “The weird and wonderful chemistry of audioactive decay.” Open problems in communication and computation. New York, NY: Springer New York, 1987. 173-188. (Springer Link)
• Jocelyn R. Bell & Frank Wattenberg (2020) The Slippery Duck Theorem, Mathematics Magazine, 93:2, 91-103, DOI: 10.1080/0025570X.2020.1708693
• Sam Chow, Ayla Gafni & Paul Gafni (2021) Connecting the Dots: Maximal Polygons on a Square Grid, Mathematics Magazine, 94:2, 118-124, DOI: 10.1080/0025570X.2021.1869493
• Bhargava, Manjul. “The factorial function and generalizations.” The American Mathematical Monthly 107.9 (2000): 783-799.(pdf)
• Birman, Joan S. “New points of view in knot theory.” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 28.2 (1993): 253-287. (pdf)
• Margalit, Dan. “The Mathematics of Joan Birman.” Notices of the American Mathematical Society (2019). (pdf)
• Pólya, George. Mathematics and plausible reasoning: Induction and analogy in mathematics. Vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 1990. (UToronto Library)
• Kürschak’s Tile by G. L. Alexanderson and Kenneth Seydel The Mathematical Gazette Vol. 62, No. 421 (Oct., 1978), pp. 192-196 (JSTOR)

Advice on Reading Papers #

Hobbies #

• String Figures and How to Make Them by Jayne
• あやとり大全集 / 野口とも著.; Ayatori daizenshū by Noguchi, Tomo.; 野口とも.
  • UToronto Library
• Mark Wilson’s complete course in magic
  • Toronto Public Library
• Mysterio’s encyclopedia of magic and conjuring
  • Toronto Public Library
• Mac King’s Campfire Magic
  • Toronto Public Library
• Modern Coin Magic by Bobo
• Card College by Roberto Giobbi
• The Complete Juggler by Dave Finnigan

Reading Gathered from This Website #

Miller, Kayla. Camp. HarperCollins Publishers, 2019.

Wang, Jen. Stargazing. First Second, 2019.

Crouch, David, and Ward, Colin. The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. United Kingdom, Five Leaves, 1997.

Crouch, David, and Ward, Colin. The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. United Kingdom, Five Leaves, 1997.

Thompson, Mary Lou, et al. Stopping Places : 1974 UUA Meditation Manual. Unitarian Universalist Association, 1974.

Telgemeier, Raina, et al. The Cartoonists Club. First edition, Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2025.

Jeavons, John. How to Grow More Vegetables (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water than You Can Imagine. 9th edition, Ten Speed Press, 2017.

Deppe, Carol. Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving, 2nd Edition. United States, Chelsea Green Pub., 2000.

Deppe, Carol. The Tao of Vegetable Gardening : Cultivating Tomatoes, Greens, Peas, Beans, Squash, Joy, and Serenity. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015.

Sherman, M. (1991) “Rationally Designed String Figures: Variations of the Kwakiutl Figure ‘Two Trees’.” Bulletin of String Figures Association 17:29-106.

Diaconis, Persi, Ronald L. Graham, and William M. Kantor. “The mathematics of perfect shuffles.” Advances in applied mathematics 4.2 (1983): 175-196.

Diaconis, Persi, and Ron Graham. “The solutions to Elmsley’s Problem.” Math Horizons 14.3 (2007): 22-27.

• 90 Minutes of Woodland Ambiance ( Nature Sounds Series #9 ) Trickling Stream & Bird Sounds - YouTube: Ryan Moulton, the author of The Hunt for Dark Breakfast, pointed out that you can listen to binaural field recordings as “working music” and I am thrilled.

Frye, Northrop. The Double Vision : Language and Meaning in Religion. University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Lubchansky, Mattie. Simplicity: A Novel. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2025.

Published: Apr 30, 2022 @ 13:02.
Last Modified: Apr 15, 2026 @ 22:25.

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