Instead of approaching “Metric spaces” from a real analysis perspective, this book tries to use an application to motivate the reader. The application is based on “contraction mapping theorem” which is used in solving a single equation / simultaneous equations. In its most simple form, let’s say there is an equation of the type x = f(x) which needs to be solved. One of the ways to solve this type of equation is as follows:

Vital lives are about action. You can’t feel warmth unless you create it, can’t feel delight until you play, can’t know serendipity unless you risk. — Joan Erikson

Off late, I have developed a lot of interest in Lebesgue Measure, thanks to the math- fin exposure over the last few years. Being a practitioner instead of a theorist/academician has its own advantage. You don’t get wedded to one concept or one theory. You take a random sample of all the techniques which have been applied to solve a problem and based on the context, you can choose one from the random sample OR create a customized method from that random sample of methods.

As the hands toil, so the spirit is raised above the troubled motions of the mind.

Any subject looked at from a historical perspective becomes interesting because the narrative becomes a story and the concepts become that much more meaningful. A subject like real analysis is a dry subject, whose importance though is seen in many branches of mathematics. When someone brings out a book on Real Analysis in a narrative format, I think it should not be missed. David Bressoud wrote the first edition of the book titled “A Radical Approach to Real Analysis” in 1994 and followed it up with a second edition in 2007.