A maths must

And another great paperback: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos (Penguin, £6.99, ISBN 0 14 025181 2). Our reviewer described the book as “mandatory reading for every journalist – as well as the readers, viewers and former tutors they supposedly serve” when it appeared in hardback last year. Paulos will take you through the maths that underlie ordinary life in lucid prose, with sympathy and wit.