Japan Jazz Anthology Select: Jazz of the SP Era

Reading List: From Math History & Topology to Shader Art

A short, link-rich set of books that connect distance, shape, and topology to the intuitions useful for SDFs and ray marching.

H. S. M. Coxeter — Introduction to Geometry

Scope: Euclidean foundations through affine/projective/differential geometry with touches of topology.

Why it helps for SDFs: builds a geometric intuition for “shape via distance,” symmetry, and coordinate views that underlie distance-based modeling.

• Google Books (bibliography/preview)
• Internet Archive (viewer; login may be required)
• Goodreads

James R. Munkres — Topology

Scope: metric spaces, continuity, connectedness, compactness, separation axioms; a canonical intro text.

Why it helps for SDFs: clarifies “inside vs. outside,” the zero set as a boundary, and continuity—core ideas behind signed distance and implicit surfaces.

• Google Books (editions/metadata)
• Amazon (purchase page)

David Hilbert & S. Cohn-Vossen — Geometry and the Imagination

Scope: classic visual geometry; bridges historical development with vivid, intuitive models.

Why it helps for SDFs: trains the eye for geometric structure and deformation—useful when “painting with distance” in shader space.

• Wikipedia overview

H. S. M. Coxeter — Regular Polytopes

Scope: symmetry and structure of regular polygons/polyhedra/polytopes in higher dimensions.

Why it helps for SDFs: deepens symmetry intuition, which is powerful for composing SDF scenes via transforms and group-like operations.

• Wikipedia overview

Summary Table

#	Title	Core Angle	Primary Links
1	Introduction to Geometry (Coxeter)	Geometry foundations → distance & symmetry intuition	Google Books, Archive, Goodreads
2	Topology (Munkres)	Inside/outside, boundary as zero set, continuity	Google Books, Amazon
3	Geometry and the Imagination (Hilbert & Cohn-Vossen)	Historical visual geometry and intuition building	Wikipedia
4	Regular Polytopes (Coxeter)	Symmetry & structure across dimensions	Wikipedia

Tip: Read 1 → 2 for foundations, then 3 → 4 to strengthen visual/symmetry intuition before diving back into SDF composition and ray-marching practice.

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