Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

As some of you may know I love mathematics, in all honesty I love it more that even Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and cake. Over the years i've read a fair few math related books (Fermat's last theorem by Simon Singh is definitely worth a read, as is The man who loved numbers (alas the author of that one escapes me)). I get that my reaction to math is not a common one, generally people tend to run away from said subject but i'll let you in on a wee secret. Math isn't like math at school, where you're given equations to learn and plug numbers into them over and over, that's why we have computers. Math, the math I like (i.e love) is different, it's kind of like magic, it's little statements of truth with elegant proofs (that in hindsight seem the most obvious solutions but are never that simple to find) without math, technology as we know it would not exist, there would be no shuffle on your iPod, there would be no computer/phone that you're reading this on, searching for things on the internet would not be nearly so easy and in a world where everything can be a bit vague math is reliably black or white, right or wrong (well 99.9% of the time) So to the book then! It is fiction, although a lot of the subject matter is based on truth. You don't need to know anything of math or number theory to understand any of the novel, there are no sums or dense mathematical material to trudge through the math in it is the characters problems, we just read the story of uncle Petros via his favourite nephew. Uncle Petros as we start the novel is almost an outcast of his family, a self made recluse whose brothers and their families visit once a year. It is in these visits his nephew begins to wonder why Uncle Petros is disliked by his brothers, what did he do to earn their ridicule when he just seems like a sweet old gardening, chess playing man. From there on this really is quite the page turner, I genuinely could not put it down, which I know in part is due to my fondness for math and reading little (true) anecdotes about mathematicians i've heard of or studied before (Petros is a fictional creation, Hardy, Littlewood, Ramaujan, Goldbach, Euler and Gauss are not). Goldbach's Conjecture is also a real statement, notoriously difficult to prove but sounds pretty simple; every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes (e.g 4=2+2, 6=3+3, 8=5+3) Incidentally if you can't cope with the math in the previous statement then you'll still be fine with the book I promise, it's really more about Uncle Petros, his relationship with his nephew and should life be deemed as a failure if you set yourself unattainable goals or admired for the journey in trying. I as you may have figured out loved this book, and if you took out the math and gave the uncle a different challenge I absolutely would have still enjoyed it (although probably not quite so much). It's quite touching in parts, sad in others and constantly riveting, don't let Math put you off, plus you never know you might end up with a certain fondness for my favourite subject (plus mathematicians are generally really interesting, odd, eccentric people, who all seem more or less to end up going mad)

The Woman In Black

Written by Susan Hill this is a book a lot of people will recognise the title of as it was adapted into a film starring he of Harry Potter fame, Daniel Radcliffe in the not so distant past. I have not watched the film version due to my slight aversion to the aforementioned actor. So then on to what I thought of the book. This novel isn't terribly long but I couldn't seem to get into it, although in defence of the book I have had a lot on my mind this week which is never exactly conducive to an enjoyable reading experience. It is essentially a ghost story, told by our narrator Arthur Kipps a young lawyer sent to sort through the papers of recently deceased Alice Drablow, a woman, something of a recluse who lived in eel marsh house which is cut off at high tide from the surrounding village. The villagers seem unwilling to talk much about this house or Mrs Drablow and immediately there is the feeling that something is afoot. At the funeral of Mrs Drablow he sees a mysterious figure, the woman in black. This figure continues to haunt him throughout the novel till it's gripping conclusion. The reveal of who and why this woman is haunting Eel Marsh House was one of my favourite parts of the novel, I also particularly enjoyed the ending which was excellent. I think however I would have enjoyed this more if I could have concentrated a little better on what I was reading. By all accounts it's somewhat different to the film but it does maintain a sinister undercurrent throughout and although there are certainly spine chilling moments I wouldn't regard this book as overwhelming scary.