A review by satyridae
The Calculus of Friendship: What a Teacher and a Student Learned about Life While Corresponding about Math by Steven Strogatz

1.0

The math was far, far over my head, but that hardly ever detracts from my enjoyment of a book. However this book, which appeared from the blurbs to be a collection of letters, was actually more of a collection of math problems. The author was pretty honest about what a clueless jerk he was for much of the time period the book covers, but his honesty didn't make me like him any better. I wonder if there's a lot left out of this book, or if he really is a guy so mathy that he doesn't see anything but numbers.

In summation, I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The writing wasn't bad, mind you- just so emotionless and flat that I couldn't connect with the non-math parts, and the math parts were so unintelligible (to me, I know, I know the rest of you got 'em) that I was overwhelmed with ennui.