If you asked about some good English literature, at least some people
would probably mention Shakespeare. In that spirit, I would start with
Euler's "Introductio in analysin infinitorum", volume 1, published
1748;
http://math.dartmouth.edu/~euler/pages/E101.html will get you to the
original (in Latin).
I believe that the English translation of the book is out of print,
but a good library should have it. You might have fun reproducing
Euler's 28-digit power series coefficients using Maxima - Euler of
course did those by hand. To put a modern perspective on Euler,
including portions of that book, you might want to read "Euler, The
Master of Us All" by William Dunham.
This, I hope, will be enjoyable and might help you to appreciate
better some of the books recommended by other people on the list.
"Reading" mathematics requires doing it. With a good book and paper
and pencil in your hands, and Maxima on side, I am sure you can have a
lot of fun. Enjoy!
Milan
* Marco Ciampa <ciampix at libero.it> [2009-02-20 10:33:13 +0100]:
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 11:35:16AM +0800, Wen Xi wrote:
> > I can't help saying thanks to Maxima.
> > Whenever I am thinking about any questions related to Maths, my head first
> > is Maxima. It really helps me a lot. Express Evaluation, Numerical
> > Computation, ....
> >
> > My work can not go on without it.
> >
> > So, thanks to Maxima, and creators. You are all the genius.
> >
> Before appreaciating maxima, one should appreciate math...
>
> OT: could you expert suggest a good math book for who, like me,
> would like to appreciate better math for, consequently, appreciate
> better maxima? :-)
>
> TIA
>
> PS: IMHO it could be a good candidate for a FAQ entry...
>
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