Mathematicians don’t read math books

David Bessis, a French mathematician, says math books aren’t meant to be read.

They’re not books in the same way as a novel is. A novel is actually telling you a story using words that you can understand. So, you open up the book on page one; you read it; it makes sense.

Math books are written in a certain way that follows a certain logic that is called logical formalism. It’s a kind of recipe for building mathematical objects, but the words make no sense to you when you open them, so you can’t read them.

… It’s very like the telephone book–you can’t really read the telephone book.

Bessis is the author of Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity.