Even for those people who were dreading those math classes during high school, this book might be a wonderful reintroduction to the powerful beauty of numbers. Peter Bentley takes the reader on a trip starting from the smallest numbers and ending with infinity. Each chapter describes the history of a specific number, being it Pi or Phi, and illustrates its use by showcasing some nice tidbits of knowledge. Although it does not seem obvious for a book about math, the author succeeds in filling the pages with hundreds of colourful illustrations. This makes a read-through extremely enjoyable and less those tedious math books some of you might remember from your school days.Although sometimes the author does allow himself some liberties concerning the correct approach in explaining the material, and even in a few cases makes blatant errors, the reader must keep in mind that this book is not exactly intended for a specialist audience. Its greatest merit lies in creating an enthusiasm that hopefully will prompt the reader to buy or borrow another more specialized book of math. For me at least it enticed me into picking up paper and starting some small experiments with numbers. It helped certainly in feeding my love for mathematical beauty.