Urhg maths. I know how important it is and yadda yadda but as interesting as it might be, could someone ever write a book about it (that is not a textbook)?? I mean I certainly would not be inclined to read something as migraine inducing, let alone for entertainment! So, me deciding to read Flatlands was quite an arbitrary decision and was honestly quite shocking considering the very sight of numbers makes me hurl. But now that I have finished the book and given it some time to settle in, I can finally give my thanks to Edwin A. Abbott for giving me a chance to read a novel like no other.
I never would have thought it would be possible to write a fiction book on maths, let alone a book that attempts to describe the 2nd and 1st dimension to its readers! But this book has unexpectedly surprised me. The book is not only about the concepts of dimension and life for organisms living in them, it is also a satirical exploration of society in the others time. This opens a gateway for a lot of humour which I must says makes Edwin Abbott seem way ahead of his time, thus making it a very enjoyable read. Not only that but it is moderately sized, making it much easier to sit through and making it seem less like a tedious chore to read. However, this book is about some very deep concepts and though there where many helpful analogies and diagrams, understanding the various extremities of life for a second dimension’s inhabitant was personally challenging at times; I would often have to re-read certain paragraphs again and again, churning ideas in my head until I was struck is a EuREka moment. This did inevitably mean that finishing this book took slightly longer than I would have wanted. On the other hand, I did have the luxury of flexing my false sense of intellect when telling people what book I was reading ( it did make me feel quite sophisticated and smart).
Overall, I think this book was a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend you give it a go. It is very fascinating as it explores ideas and concepts quite literally out of this world and has a lot of imaginative descriptions and humour, to the point where I would often forget the time period in which it was written. Have fun reading đŸ˜‰