Books

Crystals and polyhedra are popular: just ask Google. That means that people write lots of books about them, from gemstone books like Arthur Thomas’s Gemstones : Properties, Identification and Use to children’s books like Josephine and Nigel Croser’s Crystals or Ann Squire’s Growing Crystals to crystal healing books like Karen Ryan’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crystals to photography like Bentley & Humphrey’s Snow Crystals.

Meanwhile, Farlang maintains an online Rare Book Library, including many ancient texts, suggesting that the literature on crystals has not changed all that much over the centuries.

Polyhedra and symmetry are perennially popular topics, and mathematicians and scientists have contributed to the literature accessible to laymen.

• The Symmetries of Things, by John Horton Conway, Heidi Burgiel & Chaim Goodman-Strauss is an introduction to the crystallographic groups for enthusiasts.
• Shaping Space, edited by Marjorie Senechal & George M. Fleck consists of mostly popular-level papers presented at a wide open conference at Smith College in 1984.
• The old classic is Herman Weyl’s Symmetry.