Measurement/A mathematicians lament by Paul Lockhart. The first is not by any means very advanced/interesting mathematics per se, but it is written by somebody

Measurement/A mathematicians lament by Paul Lockhart. The first is not by any means very advanced/interesting mathematics per se, but it is written by somebody with an incredible passion for mathematics, which you can feel throughout the whole book, and which was totally novel for me coming from schoolish mathematics drudgery. Also, the way he approaches mathematics and teaching is quite interesting. Nothing for somebody who is already into mathematics, but as an entry point it is absolutely great. The second is a critique of school math, freely available online (https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/devlin/Lockharts...), that absolutely hits home on a lot of problems of math and school in general, but in a way that basically says "Look, its so cool, why are we ruining it? Lets do this better." which is much better than another bitter, destructive critique. And its well written and only twenty pages. Definitely recommend.