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Review title: This book is okay, but flawed in many ways.
Product review: Hoffman is certainly right that Erdos was fascinating, but so much of this book is filled up with stuff that has nothing to do with Erdos. I think the New Scientist was right to say that this book shows signs of being a magazine article bulked up at great speed into a book. The New Scientist was also right that the Erdos biography by Bruce Schechter, "My Brain Is Open," is far better written and gives a much better sense of Erdos the human being as well as Erdos the mathematician. A big disappointment. Schechter's book shows that Hoffman did a lazy job and relied on the strong personality of his subject --rather than good and careful writing-- to supply any interest this book has.
