If only Jordan Ellenberg was my highschool maths teacher - may be my career may have turned out differently. Rarely do I enjoy a literal history trip filled with stories of  great mathematicians. I've gained great insights to the works of Galton, Condorcet, Bolyai, Shannon &amp; Hamming and Wald. The closing paragraphs really struck home with me: "To do mathematics is to be at once, touched by fire and bound by reason. This is no contradiction. Logic forms a narrow channel through which intuition flows with vastly augmented force." I recommend this book to all book lovers, aspirants to careers in mathematics and mostly to those, who like myself, never appreciated Mathematics for the wonderful field of study and a way of life that it is.