Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

Feynman's brilliant and eccentric personality charms through the pages of this wonderful book. His curiosity is contagious and makes you want to live life as full as he did.

"Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman" has been on my reading list for a long time, but I never got myself to actually read it. Now I did and I'm glad I did because I found it one of the most funny and insightful books that I've read recently. It's a biography but consisting of short stories of interesting events that happened in the life of Nobel Prize Winner Richard Feynman who seemed to have a special talent of getting himself into interesting situations. The book consist of 5 parts, which are roughly equal to five important periods in Feynman's life. These are: 1) His early pre-university life, 2) His university life, 3) Involvement in the Manhattan project, 4) Early years as a professor, and 5) Later years as a physicist and professor. Each of these parts consist of small chapters that tell a situation (usually funny or weird) in which he got himself and his usually odd reactions in that situation. Throughout the book, there is this honest, smart, jokingly view on life. Feynman did experiments. Not just experiments in physics but experiments in life. He would try out things to see if he could do it or to see how people would react. That attitude of experimenting and learning always got him in weird situations and this book is full of those. Example? As a boy trying to imitate Italian (and getting away with it). Removing doors from classmates and so honestly admitting that he did it that nobody believed him (hilarious!). Pick-locking safes. Playing Brazilian instruments. Doing out to Vegas to hand out with gamblers and show women. Proof reading secondary school science books and actually reading them :) This was one of these books which I found myself laughing out loud quite often. Many of the stories made such an impression that I went off to tell other people about it as they stuck with me (especially the genius experiment with water, a glass and a tip). Everytime when I read more of it, I got more excited about the book and I was actually very sad when I finished the book. It is a book I'll probably re-read (and enjoy as much the second time). It isn't a book about physics or about a specific topic, it is purely a book about Richard Feynman... a curious character... indeed. Five stars, recommended for people who want to read an interesting and fun book.

The book is a great piece of literature that demonstrates the lack of necessity for there to be a continuous progression of story in books today. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! is an excellent collection of stories from throughout Richard Feynman's Life, and is a great tale of in a way, what everyone could be if we all just had a little bit of a more creative mind. He doesn't have any particular special trait that makes him a great person, it's just that he is curious, and that leads him down the great paths in life that he goes down, from his house as a child fixing radios, to great schools such as MIT and Princeton. I find in particular that his open-mind leads to a lot of friends and opportunities, such as being curious enough that he joined a biology class in grad school while knowing little in the way of biology. The places where he goes is a demonstration of sorts of Richard Feynman's progression as a character. he begins as a child and progresses to MIT, where it's clear he knows more, but his knowledge is not fully developed. After, progressing to MIT, then to Princeton, then to work for the US developing the nuclear bomb, where it is clear he has gained a lifetime of experience and knowledge. I find his collection of stories remarkable, as he tells about his experiments from watching his dreams, to understanding how ants find their paths. I could not recommend this book for school projects, however, as the stories have extremely connection to each other. I would still recommend this book as a read though, as it is fantastic to hear about how he learned to deal with the fact that one of his first lectures was in front of Einstien, and other fascinating tales. His style is interesting, one I have never seen before, and if you have seen any of his lectures, you will know what I am referring to. In his stories, he never gives all of the details away at once, only what is required. As Bill Gates once put it, "you feel like you are discovering alongside him". This style of teaching is evident in his story, as when he talks, he talks about the story slowly so that you don't know what will happen until the very end. Again, he represents as a human what everyone could be, just if only they had a little more creativity, and the mind and passion to pursue those traits to whatever path they lead down. I thoroughly believe everyone should read this book, as it is both international, and entertaining

Folksy anecdotes from one of the greats. This copy replaces the last one I lent out; they’re never returned.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a witty and captivating memoir by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Told through a series of anecdotes, the book showcases Feynman's brilliant mind, boundless curiosity, and irreverent sense of humor. From cracking safes at Los Alamos to drumming in Brazil, it paints a vivid picture of a scientist who never stopped questioning, exploring, or challenging conventions. While it’s light on technical physics, it’s rich in personality and intellectual mischief—an inspiring and entertaining read for scientists and non-scientists alike.

Best teacher ever ! Great book, in perfect conditions

I’m very glad I chose this book because it has opened my eyes to the sciences. This book was a series of short stories categorized in chronological order from Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman’s life. He starts the book with a story about how he fixes a broken radio by just problem solving. Throughout the book Richard looks for ways to constantly learn, look for problems, and most importantly find for solutions. Later in the book Richard talks about how he was on a honeymoon with his second wife in Mexico, and at a museum he stopped and bought some books that happened to be on sale. This is a great example of Richard’s willingness to constantly learn. As he learns more and more he questions more, and get the reader to start reconsidering ways they think and learn. I would most definitely recommend this book to others, and more specifically I would recommend this to high school and college students that are interested in the sciences or high intellectual thinking. This author tended to use lots of bold words in either caps or italics to emphasize different main points in each anecdote. Also through the book he used great dialogue to help show the reader the event instead of telling them, “I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower and wonder if I cold figure out what determines that curve” (P.173). Here he explains to his friend another object that he begins to examine and question, and try to provide answers to his inquiry. Also the author perpetually uses personification, hyperbola’s, and different kinds of figurative language to appeal to your senses to make a boring examination of nuclear reactor more interesting, “Or: nuclear reactor…Under water… Water goes in… Steam goes out the other side… Air then comes rushing to the front. Heated up by nuclear reaction… BOOM! Pshshshsht- it’s a submarine!” (P.181). The author’s usage of stylistic elements is very effective because using words like ‘Pshshshsht’ helps contrast the large amount of high intellectual thoughts and ultimately make the memoir more informal. By creating a more informal and at sometimes funny pranks or what not, it helps you connect and relate more with the character. The audience that that this style will work best is with the groups of people I had previously recommend: high school & college students because they need the break of high intellectual thoughts and really connect to individuals over humorous events. Audiences that might not enjoy this type of style would be more serious and professional types of people like lawyers, or doctors.

I have had the pleasure to be smitten by people of Feynman's character type & generally have left their presence drooling with admiration and a certain sort of blessed reassurance that there is sanity in this crazy world. This book is not one I would characterize as an "easy read" especially if you don't have a basic & general background in all of the sciences. I consider myself to have a basic background and while grasping most of the stories & quips involving Feynman's fascination with biological concepts, I pretty much got glassy eyed when stumbling through quantum theory, theroms and what have you. Nevertheless, this book is very entertaining and gives insight into the workings of a man of enormous curiosity , intelligence and whit. It is written in short chapters , each one could be read as a separate story all of which are rich with adventure, sound scientific thinking and humor. I think every student from 5th grade through college level should be encouraged to read this book as it is a great lesson in how science is a process of sound thinking, logical reasoning, debate and discussion, success and failure. Pick this one up. It is an exceptional insight into a brilliant mind, an interesting character and some background on his & other's contribution to our own American history. The book is written in Feynman's voice and will leave you feeling as if you knew him and begging for the chance to go back in time and have a cup of tea with him. M