It starts by ranting about uppity mathematicians and academics while showing how simply you can get your head around basic calculus.
I wish I had something like that book while I was at school - something that emphasized that maths can be easy if you approach it the right way.
"I don't believe in the idea that there are a few peculiar people capable of understanding math, and the rest of the world is normal. Math is a human discovery, and it's no more complicated than humans can understand. I had a calculus book once that said, 'What one fool can do, another can.' What we've been able to work out about nature may look abstract and threatening to someone who hasn't studied it, but it was fools who did it, and in the next generation, all the fools will understand it. There's a tendency to pomposity in all this, to make it deep and profound."
-- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (http://books.google.com/books?id=Md0IirlFUfEC&lpg=PA194&...)
Thank you.
ADDED IN EDIT: A quick search shows that the updated version is co-authored by one of my personal heroes - Martin Gardner. Now I'll need to get two copies.
http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Made-Easy-Silvanus-Thompson/d...