William Goldbloom Bloch

This book applies ideas in pure mathematics to Jorge Luis Borges' short story, The Library of Babel. Given the description of the Library and the things mentioned in the story, we can come to a number of surprising conclusions about the Library itself. For one thing, it would not be possible to contain the Library in our Universe. The topology of the Library is also something of a sticking point for some since it is supposed to be infinite. Anyway, I thought this book was a charming introduction to the mathematics involved and to the works of Jorge Luis Borges.… (mehr)

The author does a very good job of explaining some of the mathematics that are implied from Borges' short story, and thus uses this as a generative point. The section on the manifold may be a bit confusing for many (although the author does give his frequent "advisories"). Perhaps a little too much time is spent in the beginning making qualifying comments / apologies when they may not be necessary. In my view, there were a few other avenues the author could have explored, but that is hardly considered a failing.… (mehr)