Chaos

I just read one of the most enjoyable opening lines of a preface I think I have ever read in a textbook:

"Popular treatments of chaos, fractals, and dynamical systems let the public know there is a party but provide no map to the festivities. Advanced texts assume their readers are already part of the club."

It just struck me as clever. I have only the vaguest notion of the mathematics of dynamical systems, but I will endeavour to change that over the next little while. Luckily, I have this wonderful sounding textbook (available online here), so everyone can join me at the mathematical party.