THE JOY OF PI

The number 3.14--the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter--has fascinated and challenged mathematicians for thousands of years. This multivoiced reading of David Blatner’s book sheds some light on the fascination. Listening to books about mathematics has an inherent drawback: Formulas and equations don’t translate well without the benefit of being able to view them in a book or on a chalkboard. But this entertaining work, replete with pi-based trivia, music, history, and plenty of humor, brings genuine joy to geometry. Oliver Wyman is the primary narrator, telling the long history of pi and mathematicians’ race to calculate it to more and more decimal points. Wyman slips easily from his straight narrative style to various foreign accents, as called for in the text, while Laura Dean and Hank Jacobs serve up “Pi on the Side” pieces of trivia with warmth and wry wit. Squaring circles will never be the same again. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2003 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]