Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman! - Richard P. Feynman

This is a truly entertaining book which gives a real insight into Richard Feynman's life. If you are interested in Physics or science in general, Feynman is a great person to read about because as this book reveals, he's exactly what you hope a scientist is. His stories aren't at all boring but they communicate the excitement that can be found in science. Having said that, I don't want to imply that this isn't a book for those not interested in science. It's a great autobiographical piece in its own right and the stories aren't soley about his scientific endeavours. By the end of it, I think most people will wish they had had the chance to be friends with Mr ...  Read the complete review

Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman! This line is taken from one of the many anecdotes this book is filled with; in fact, essentially, it is the story of distinguished physicist Richard Feynman's life through the medium of anecdote. It starts out with his radio-fixing 'business' as a child, and his early interest in the application of science for magic tricks. One can see this fascination with the natural sciences throughout his entire life. Many of the anecdotes he presents to us are extraordinarily funny, such as the one which gives us the title, whereas others, are extremely poignant. These poignancies and humorous sections show us that Richard ...  Read the complete review

Have you ever heard of Richard Feynman? Perhaps you know he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. Perhaps you know that he, as a young physicist, helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos during the war. More likely, you are aware that he sat on the commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (but that's another book, and another op). Perhaps you know none of these things. Reading "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!" - Adventures of a Curious Character will also tell you that he (amongst other things) dabbled in biology, was a painter (and even sold his drawings and paintings), cracked safes, was multilingual, and ...  Read the complete review