Reddit mentions of The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics

I know I must be missing some, but these are all that I can think of at the moment.

Fiction:

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

White Noise by Don Delilo

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by DFW

Infinite Jest by DFW

Of these, you can't go wrong with Infinite Jest and the Collected Fictions of Borges. His Dark Materials is an easy and classic read, probably the lightest fare on this list.

Non-Fiction:

The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy

Chaos by James Gleick

How to be Gay by David Halperin

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

Secret Historian by Justin Spring

Of these, Secret Historian was definitely the most interesting, though How to be Gay was a good intro to queer theory.

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Primes-Searching-Greatest-Mathematics/dp/0062064010

I would recommend geometry or number theory.

Also, not a text book, but definitely made me excited about maths and at the time I read it, Music of the Primes - Marcus du Sautoy. It's a very accessible and well written book about the Riemann Hypothesis.

It would be helpful to know what your background is to recommend a suitable text.

• The Artist and the Mathematician (Boubaki)
  
• Prime obsession (Riemann hypothessis)
  
• Music of the primes (Riemann hypothesis)
  
• [Mystery of Aleph (Cantor)] (http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Aleph-Mathematics-Kabbalah-Infinity/dp/156858105X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415294623&sr=1-1&keywords=mystery+of+aleph)
  
• Poincare Conjecture (Poincare Conjecture)

To answer your second question, KhanAcademy is always good for algebra/trig/basic calc stuff. Another good resource is Paul's online Math Notes, especially if you prefer reading to watching videos.

To answer your second question, here are some classic texts you could try (keep in mind that parts of them may not make all that much sense without knowing any calculus or abstract algebra):

Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell

The History of Calculus by Carl Boyer

Some other well-received math history books:

An Intro to the History of Math by Howard Eves, Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, Morris Kline's monumental 3-part series (1, 2, 3) (best left until later), and another brilliant book by Dunham.

And the MacTutor History of Math site is a great resource.

Finally, some really great historical thrillers that deal with some really exciting stuff in number theory:

Fermat's Enigma by Simon Sigh

The Music of the Primes by Marcus DuSautoy

Also (I know this is a lot), this is a widely-renowned and cheap book for learning about modern/university-level math: Concepts of Modern Math by Ian Stewart.

Not really a "textbook", but I can highly recommend The Music Of The Primes by Marcus du Sautoy. It's a great read. http://www.amazon.com/The-Music-Primes-Searching-Mathematics/dp/0062064010