To Mock a Mockingbird

The first section of book is similar to many of his other puzzle books, with plenty of knights and knaves puzzles, meta puzzles, and more. But it is the second half of the book that is the focus, and it is absolutely brilliant.The puzzles based on combinatorial logic continue to build on top of each other until Smullyan yet again demonstrates Godel's Incompleteness theorems.Both fun and instructional.

Some of the puzzles can be very difficult and frustrating, and a few are almost trivial. But most of it is great. If you work through the entire book, you will learn Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, the Fixed Point Principle, and how just a few simple combinators form a complete basis for performing arithmetic, logic, and computation in general.

Every book by Smullyan is worth reading. Who says that books aren’t interactive?

Bought this for my mathematician partner for Xmas, as he's off to a ton of conferences in the next few months. He loves it, perfect for his nerdy and gorgeous brain.

Great book !

Raymond Smullyan is a master of blending wondrous tales of adventure seamlessly with complex topics such as functional, abstract, and symbolic logic, as well as deductive games and exercises. This book is actually one of the best explorations of combinatory logic I have ever encountered. Disguised cleverly by the analogy of birds singing, you will be working through complex mathematical proofs in no time, without even realizing that you're doing it! You'll think it's all just bluebirds and warblers calling to each other!Combinatory logic is one of the most obscure and fascinating branches of logic I have ever encountered. Its mathematical counterpart (largely the same thing) is known as lambda calculus, and it in fact is used extensively in artificial intelligence and programming language design. The Lisp programming language is actually based on lambda calculus. Learning either combinatory logic or lambda calculus is a venture for only those whose mind is best suited to mathematics, logic, or computer science. If you are someone interested in all three (like myself) then this is the book for you!Overall, highly recommended for nerdy types, or anyone who likes puzzles.

I was tempted to start reading my copy of this book (again) because I've been on a mission recently to complete reading some of the books I've had sitting on my shelf unread for the longest time. Other than this volume, I can't remember the last time I started reading a book, then determined it wasn't worth the time it would take to finish it. This book definitely falls into that category.The first two of the book's six parts (approximately the first 60 pages) may be worth getting through, as long as you realize you shouldn't spend an inordinate amount of time (i.e. to the point of frustration) solving the puzzles, because, upon reading the solutions, it becomes clear that the questions themselves are very poorly worded. It seems as if, rather than clarifying the topic, the author introduces many unnecessary levels of abstraction that only serve to further complicate his points. I have no reason to doubt the author's mathematical abilities, and I've also not read anything else by him (Smullyan), so am quite unable to judge whether the text of this book relates simply to his style, or speaks more to his ability to clearly express himself on the page. But, given the quantity of material that is out there demanding my attention, and the finite amount of time I have to spend exploring it, I think the author is asking too much of a reader to demand that, in order to follow his lines of reasoning, one must keep straight all the symbols he employs (letters, numbers, abbreviations, special characters -- which seem to be assigned rather arbitrarily, I might add) to represent the hundreds of different types of make believe "birds" he creates to inhabit his fictitious "forests" in the hypothetical situations he presents. In an attempt to help people grasp what may be a foreign topic for them, it probably would have been better to have used more familiar forms of analogy that are easier to visualize rather than birdsong. Listening to words I know in order to understand a concept is one thing; it's quite another matter altogether to have to imagine the foreign sounds of an entirely different species and then to be expected to derive some kind of explanation from that.On the plus side, his fans might enjoy it, and I didn't throw it out, so maybe I'll make another attempt to tackle it in the future, although, at the moment, I can't conceive of ever having nothing better to do.

I got to here by learning about SK combinator calclus, unlambda, etc. - be warned, this is a puzzle book, having no knowledge of these kinds of puzzles can be a hinderance

The book is an amazing intro in Combinatorial logic, but the puzzles need a lot of thinking. Be prepared to use pencil and paper. Super fun experience. The late prof. Smullyan was a master of both math. logic and logic riddles.

One of the best books I ever bought. Its exposition on combinatory logic using different birds species is perhaps a little eccentric, but it actually works amazingly well to explain the concept. Recommended for anyone who wants a gentle introduction to combinatory logic.

As much as I'd like to write a long review, I don't think I really can.It's a puzzle book, so you're going to have to put in the work. I would have to agree with other people that it definitely is very rewarding once you get through it all, but the learning curve is pretty darn steep in the beginning. In fact, I've picked up this book 3 times and failed before I was finally able to get through to the end.Go through each of the exercises and really try your best to complete them. In the beginning, you'll find that you're getting stuck on pretty much every single problem. At some point down the road (maybe very far down the road, but eventually you'll get there) things start to click.This is not a book for impatient people. But it is definitely worth it for those who are.Another good thing about this book is the fact that it's quite thin and small. I enjoyed taking it with me wherever I go since it was quite portable. I've literally read this book on a bus, train, plane, and boat before.Oh and one final thing, make sure to get a nice notebook to carry around with you. You'll need a lot of paper to do the exercises in the book, but trust me, it's worth it.

Raymond Smullyan ci ha divertiti tante volte, e continua a divertirci, con i suoi rompicapi logici. I soggetti di questo libro (il cui titolo è un gioco di parole con To Kill a Mockingbird, in italiano Il buio oltre la siepe) sono uccelli speciali, che chiamano il nome di altri uccelli quando sentono il nome di ulteriori uccelli. E così, tra mimi, gheppi, sialie, storni, lodole, gufi e uccelli saggi, il lettore scopre mano a mano quella teoria generale della programmazione che è la logica combinatoria, con i suoi teoremi di punto fisso e la sua rappresentazione delle funzioni aritmetiche. Ancora una volta Smullyan ci fa scoprire in modo divertente alcuni dei più profondi teoremi della matematica.

Keiner versteht es so gut, hochwertige Mathematik verständlich darzulegen, trotz komplizierter Zusammenhänge und dichter Formelfolgen. Man merkt: Der Autor war Zauberkünstler, er versteht es, das Volk zu unterhalten. Seine Darlegung der Theorie der Kombinatoren mit Hilfe exotischer Vögel ist witzig, verständlich, lehrreich, unterhaltsam, fantastisch. Tolles Büchlein!