Reading list
Books and related links saved with the June 2022, January 2022, and February 2021 log entries. The groupings below retain that dated reading context.
June 2022
In the algebraic topology course at UCT we used the textbook A first course in algebraic topology by Czes Kosniowski and in the differential geometry course we used Geometry, Topology, and Physics by M. Nakahara.
January 2022
Category theory
Reading in preparation for a category theory course at UCT:
- Categories for the Working Mathematician — Saunders Mac Lane.
Mathematical writing and the Oulipo
- 99 Variations on a Proof — Philip Ording.
- Exercises in Style — Raymond Queneau.
- Oulipo Compendium.
- All That Is Evident Is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo: 1963 - 2018.
Related references: Oulipo and Raymond Queneau.
Geometry and visual intuition
- The Shape of Space — Jeffrey R. Weeks.
- Visual Differential Geometry and Forms: A Mathematical Drama in Five Acts — Tristan Needham.
- Visual Complex Analysis — Tristan Needham.
Mathematical lives
- Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein — Abraham Pais.
- Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel — Stephen Budiansky.
Related reference: the Vienna Circle.
Mathematics and philosophy
- In Praise of Mathematics — Alain Badiou.
February 2021
Fiction and essays
- When we cease to understand the world — Benjamín Labatut.
- Labyrinths — Borges.
- Selected Non Fictions — Borges.
Related reading: Labatut’s magical rendering of Grothendieck’s life.
Mathematics and course reading
Textbooks I was working through:
- Conceptual Mathematics: A first introduction to categories — Lawvere & Schanuel.
- Abel’s Theorem in Problems and Solutions — V. B. Alekseev (based on the lectures by Professor V. I. Arnold).
Our prescribed reading for topology was Munkres; I was also reading these supplements:
- Topology and Groupoids — Ronald Brown.
- Counterexamples in Topology — Steen & Seebach.
For my group theory course, I chose Algebra by Birkhoff & Mac Lane for its use of categories.
Mathematics and Computation: A Theory Revolutionizing Technology by Avi Wigderson: such a beautiful book.
I also listed Introduction to Theory of Computation as a supplement to the finite languages and automata course.
- Picturing Quantum Processes: A First Course in Quantum Theory and Diagrammatic Reasoning — Coecke & Kissinger.
Philosophy
- After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency — Quentin Meillassoux.
- Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making — Graham Harman; a companion to Meillassoux’s work.
- Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics — Fernando Zalamea.
I was reading quite a bit about Mark Fisher, including Capitalist Realism, and coming into contact with the work of CCRU. I also listed Cyberpositive by o(rphan) d(rift>).
Deleuze and Guattari are mentioned a lot in Mark Fisher’s work. My reading list included Critical Lives: Gilles Deleuze by Frida Beckman.
I wasn’t reading enough African philosophers. I listed Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe.