What is your favorite (influential, inspiring) higher mathematics book?

Answer 1

I personally like my mathematics to be objective but I do not mind the occassional proclamatory texts...
In that way I would think Hardy's 'A course in pure mathematics' is inspiring for those looking for a rigorous course in orthodox real analysis.
Visual Complex Analysis deserves a word for it's informality and sense of adventure as unexpected geometrical facts unravel themselves bathed in the intrinsic beauty of complex analysis.

Answer 2

Fermat's last theorem (can't recall the author though). In this book, the author narrates the story of how the mystery first begins and how it was eventually solved by Prof. Andrew Wiles (I hope I get all the names right).

But what sets the book apart is that it is not so much a book about mathematical knowledge as much as passion for mathematics. In it, the author show all the drama, courage, inspiration and adversities of life. The key characters in the saga are shown to be real people, with real life problems, who in the midst of all the chaos manage to find time to devote to their passion.

It captures the essence of the unyielding human spirit and was the book that finally drilled into me that mathematics is not about archaic rituals or modern techniques, but living ideas. The mathematicians of the past had sacrificed much to bring us our common formulas.

I have never looked at any formula the same way again... Now I see a culmination of effort, sacrifice and triumph.

Answer 3

The coolest mathematics book I've ever (tried to) read is Douglas Hofstader's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. I read it twice before when I was younger, and now that I've had a course in formal languages, I'm sure I'm going to get even more out of it. It's just an amazing book.

http://tal.forum2.org/geb
http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567

Answer 4

Bible! God says there - multiply! What can be higher!