The critiques here are spot on. The dialogues at the beginning of chapters were tedious and mostly unhelpful. The treatment of anything far afield from math was

The critiques here are spot on. The dialogues at the beginning of chapters were tedious and mostly unhelpful. The treatment of anything far afield from math was pretty shallow and cursory. That said, I still loved this book in spite of its imperfections. I think it’s important to read it at the correct time in one’s life. When I first read it (at 19 or so), it showed me a lot of things I’d never thought about before. The topics it didn’t really do justice, it at least hinted at things that were new and interesting to me. It doesn’t hold up quite so well to subsequent readings by my older self, but I’ll always have a soft spot for it.