A Joint Review of "A History of Pi, by Petr Beckmann", St. Martins's Press, 1976, Barnes and Noble Books, 1989; "The Joy of Pi, by David Blatner", Walker & Co., 1997; "The Nothing That Is, by Robert Kaplan", Oxford University Press, 1999; "e: The Story of a Number, by Eli Maor", Princeton University Press, 1998; "An Imaginary Tale, by Paul Nahin", Princeton University Press, 1998; "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by Charles Seife", Viking Press, 2000.

Abstract

We are in the midst of an onslaught of books devoted to particular numbers. In this article we will be concerned with several recent and not-so-recent books about pi, e, i, and 0; of the quantities in the famous equation e(pi)i + 1 = 0, only 1 does not yet have its book. Given the trend, we can look forward to its appearance, possibly followed by volumes on "+" and "=".