Hard disagree. These books are not textbooks but Companions thus giving one history, development, concepts, ideas etc. of Mathematics. This is very similar to

Hard disagree. These books are not textbooks but Companions thus giving one history, development, concepts, ideas etc. of Mathematics. This is very similar to Encyclopedias/Dictionaries that every family generally has in its "personal library" but just more detailed w.r.t. Mathematics. By "comprehensive" i meant the books are comprehensive and not that one has to study every bit of it. Pick and choose topics/terminologies as you come across them at whatever level you want. You are adding to your education and not necessarily trying to become a "Mathematician". Every "educated person" (STEM or not) with curiosity to understand more about the World (and all-pervasive technologies in particular) has to have some idea of "Modern Maths" at some level. This is why you have so many "popular science and mathematics" books. While these companion books are not "popular maths" books they make a very good reference for when one wants more breadth and depth but not necessarily a full-blown textbook. These are also great "motivators" for students by sparking their curiosity (and perhaps inspire some to become Mathematicians)) since they catalog so much within one pair of covers.