I’ve considered and
reconsidered more than once to write about books which influenced
my life the most. And it turns out, again and again, that it
shouldn’t be a simple list, one-dimensional, but at least
two-dimensional with my maturity time line incorporated. Quite a
requirement, to say at least. Not ready, yet.
Now,
if you ask me which book is my companion for the most of my
lifetime, that’s easy - it’s a math guide/manual for the
engineers and college students in engineering:
И.Н.
Бронштейн
и К.А.
Семендяев:
Справочник
по
математике
для
инженеров
и учащихся
втузов
(Spravočnik
po matematike dlja inženerov
i učaščichsja
vtuzov by I.N. Bronštejn
and K. A. Semendjaev, Izdanie 7-oe, stereotipnoe, 1957). When I
bought it as a Croatian high school senior in 1957, I didn’t
know its true value and worldwide reputation, later I’ve learned
that it has been translated into a dozen languages, including
those with highest technical standards, like German.
Well, Spravočnik
was my companion through the high education in Croatia and
Slovenia, all the way to Physics Ph.D, my research and teaching
1962-84 in Croatia, my postdoctoral studies 1967-9 in Canada,
summer school on magnetic resonance