The mystery of the aleph

Infinity has been a source of much confusion over the ages. In The mystery of the aleph Amir Aczel traces our gradual acceptance of the concept. He starts with the ideas of Zeno and Pythagoras and goes on to consider the Jewish mystical system known as the Kabbalah. He shows how Galileo began to take infinity seriously, accepting actual as well as potential infinities. Aczel then moves on to the nineteenth century, when infinitesimals were put on a firmer footing, but most importantly of all he describes the life of Georg Cantor, and his work on transfinite set theory. The last few chapters look at later developments of this theory, and in particular the work of Kurt Gödel.

I would say that the reader needs some mathematical background to be able to follow this book. It's harder than God's Equation where biographical details help the reader along, but then biographies of those working with the infinite tend to be a bit depressing. But I think that someone who has pursued mathematics to a reasonably advanced level at school should have no problems with this book, and that it would be a useful introduction to the concept of infinity for those wanting to go on to study mathematics or physical science at university level.