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How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math From Nerd Nite

James B.’s recommendation for the 510 Club | October 2025

 

In September, Rata from the Mathateca team was a guest speaker at Nerd Nite Christchurch. Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in 100+ cities across the globe during which folks give 20-minute fun-yet-informative presentations across all disciplines – while the audience drinks along! 

The book How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi is a collection of small write-ups of some of the best Nerd Nite talks from around the world. There is a whole section dedicated to maths, brilliantly and accurately titled "Math Is Fun" with topics such as "The Mathematics Of Gossip", "Getting To Know Infinity" and "A Little Bit Of Cryptography".
 
There are plenty of other amusing Nerd Nite 'greatest hits' that are all a brief but entertaining read. The book is easy to pick up and read the sections in any order. 

Kristen Orr has brilliantly illustrated the book, if you like XKCD then you'll enjoy the whimsy and humor they add. 

Christchurch 'Boss Nerd' Nicole O'Hearne is listed at the end of the book, so why not come along to a Nerd Nite to enjoy a great night out to 'Think and Drink' and listen to her Moment Of Science, which may even include a future Mathateca collaboration?

 

 

WHAT IS THE 510 CLUB?

The 510 Club is named after the Dewey Decimal classification for Mathematics. It is a book recommendation project facilitated by Mathateca in collaboration with Christchurch MathsJam. Each month we feature a mathematical book recommendation, whether that’s a novel, articles / essays, a puzzle book, textbook, biography... just as long as it features maths in some way. Read the above book at your leisure then feel free to comment your thoughts below, or come along to the following Christchurch MathsJam sessions to join in an informal maths/book chat with the reviewer.

We're always looking for suggestions! If you're interested in contributing a book rec one month, please email christchurch@mathsjam.com to sign up.