It's fascinating how patterns in nature seem to reveal something of the universe's predilections, if not its very fabric. I've been meaning to get to this one for some time.

This was a fantastic, intriguing book. Livio manages to cram a tremendous amount of historical information into his narrative, along with copious mathematical examples to flesh it out. His goal seems to be to expose a relatively casual reader to the wonders not only of the golden ratio but of a mathematical conception of the universe. That's one heck of a lot to bite off, and Livio brilliantly walks the tightrope between too much and too little. I took off one point because the early bits, where he skips around in the history of math, are a bit scattershot. When he settles down on Phi, though, it really picks up steam. My interest flagged briefly during some of the later bits where he talked about various artists, but then it led naturally into a discussion of how "theoretical" three-dimensional tiling turned out to have a wholly unexpected real-world parallel. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in math and a moderate mathematical background. Now I'm anxious to read more about Kepler and Brahe!

Sending this to rachberk in a trade.

This came a few days ago. I can't wait to read it. Thanks, HughYeman!