"A poetic and profound meditation on the mathematical imagination." --The Christian Science Monitor

"[A] quizzing, quizzical little book...The window which Mazur cuts into the world of imaginary numbers is just as exciting, and almost as provocative, as anything in Phillip Pullman." --The Observer (London)

"Through anecdotes, poetry, and philosophy, Mazur...makes a delightful case for the pleasures of abstract thought." --New Scientist

"This absorbing and in itself most imaginative book lies in the grand tradition of explanations of what mathematical imagination is...and will appeal particularly to lovers of literature." --John Hollander

"Barry Mazur's Imagining Numbers is quite literally a charming book; it has brought even me, in a dazed state, to the brink of mathematical play." --Richard Wilbur, author of Mayflies: New Poems and Translations