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Summary: A nuclear physicist who took the scientific approach to life
Review: "Surely You're Joking" frankly and unabashedly has the sole purpose of explaining what its like to be Feynman. It reads as if you've cornered him at a party, and asked him to explain just why he acted so weird, then transcribed what he said for five hours. For those who are unfamiliar with Feynman's particular brand of eccentricity, his unwillingness to accept anything he's told as gospel, this should be an eye-opener. For those who consider themselves the same, if not in intelligence but in approach to life, it's an egotistical trip wherein one has the guilty pleasure of saying "Yes, the Universe really is so stupid, isn't it?"
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Summary: It's Good To Be Feynman!
Review: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" is a very interesting book. The many amusing and captivating stories in this autobiography keep you wanting to read more. I personally had a hard time putting this book down every night. Even though I started reading this for a physics project it turned out to be a very entertaining assignment due to the many diverse topics discussed in the book. The subjects discussed range from physics to biology and even touching on hypnosis in one chapter. The book starts out by telling how he acted growing up and then went on to tell about his college life and eventually went all the way to his adult life. This book is a humorous look at the world of science through the eyes of one of the greatest physicists of all time, Richard P. Feynman. It is a must read for anyone interested in any science related field.
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Summary: One of fun books I've ever read
Review: .Feynman, the man who likes to "do" physics, takes us on a eye opening journey into the world of why not. He has an extraordinary way of looking at the world that takes nothing for granted. He experiments with everything including some ordinary activities like asking someone to handle a book and putting our sense of smell to work to find out which one. What are our limits? Should we continue not to try new things? Each chapter is a gem of a story. Feyman's book is hilarious. You will find yourself talking about it for weeks. Be sure to pass this book on to as many people as possible. It is a fast easy read and one of the most fun books I've ever read.
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Summary: you wont' be boring with this book
Review: A fascinating book that provides a look into one of the greatest intellectual in modern physics. This book will make you think differently about physicist (that usually potrayed as serious personality). You'll want to finish it in one sitting.
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Summary: Another kind of genius
Review: A friend recommended this book once, but after reading a few paragraphs, I did not find it very interesting and I moved on to something else. After a while he brought it up again and finally convinced me by reading me one whole chapter that made me laugh a lot. I am glad I finally gave in to this delightful and fascinating book.
It's been a long time since I have read a book which combines so perfectly humour, curiosity, intelligence, a very vivid language, and nice adventures of discovering the world.
Basically, the book speaks about the exploits of the Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Richard Feynman, an incredibly brilliant mind who was part of the research team that made the atomic bomb, but who doesn't know that if you put milk in your tea, you should not have lemon at the same time. Nor is he very good at socializing with women, yet he is a successful visiting professor at the most important universities in the US where he gives very challenging lectures.
These contrasting features make Richard Feynman a very appealing and lively character, and his book is a series of hilarious events that make you laugh out loud. He is so smart that he can break a safe in less than 15 minutes and so he made a habit of playing tricks on his colleagues by breaking the secret codes for their safes.
A multilateral personality, he studied also biology, art (he took art lessons and sold a few paintings), music. He was a scientist but not the stiff type; on the contrary, he was a very funny personality, full of sense of humour, with a childlike curiosity who tells his story with an incredible sincerity, a free spirit and enjoyable character.
It is a book I highly recommend for different reasons: readers will have the chance to meet a rare and admirable personality in a narrative marked with good quality humour.
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Summary: Fantastic!!
Review: A great book...i just could'nt put it down....this book sure will pep you up...a must buy!!
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Summary: An Open Palm
Review: A late relative of mine, a world-renowned physicist, once said: "One has to be an open palm. As soon as it clenches into a fist, the person looses the ability to learn and to enjoy new things. And that is the onset of old age". Looking at our parents and grandparents, older colleagues, and now increasingly often at my own contemporaries and at myself, I am beginning to understand what a hard task it is - to remain an open palm. Almost no one avoids the nostalgic illusion - in our better days snow was whiter and girls prettier, and what we've been taught is the only correct doctrine. One only sees how ridiculous such claims are when confronted with a different, higher breed of people, who remain curious and young at heart at any age. Richard Feynman was one of such people. In case someone does not know, Richard Feynman was a physicist, a Nobel prize winner, a participant of the Manhattan project, the founder of quantum mechanics. I have no idea what it is; they say, though, that a new race of computers will shortly change our world and our perception of it; these computers will be supposedly built on principles foreseen by Feynman. Feynman's book, subtitled "Adventures of a Curious Character", is his memoir - not written down, but narrated in conversations with a close friend. It is very clear that nothing surpassed his ardent passion for physics. When Feynman spoke about his subject, he rejected all notions of etiquette and subordination; Nils Bohr and Einstein could discuss their new ideas only with him - other colleagues just gaped in awe at any dictum of theirs. Feynman writes about the very *process* of discovery - this is probably the only sincere and authentic description of scientific creativity of such scale in literature. In the closing chapter, Feynman speaks about the scientist's responsibility - not to society or colleagues, but rather to himself and his science; all his recollections, serious and jocular, clearly demonstrate how serious it was to him. They say a gifted person is gifted in anything. Feynman was unusually eager to prove this dubious statement. He came to Brazil to lecture on physics, and ended up playing frigideira and winning, with his fellow musicians, the annual competition at a street parade in Rio. He recorded a percussion-only soundtrack for a ballet, and the performance won a second place at a prestigious competition in Paris. He tackled pencils and brushes without any knowledge or experience in paining, and soon became a hot commodity on the art market. In "alien" domains Feynman always acted incognito or under an alias - he never wanted to be the proverbial Dr. Johnson's dog, whose ability to walk on its hind legs was judged by the fact that it was a dog, not because it walked well. Feynman's free-time undertakings were usually perfected to a degree which would be the crowning glory of many a professional career. He spent one of his summer holidays working under James Watson, the discoverer of the DNA, and soon was able to read a sound lecture about his own findings to Harvard professors of biology. All this seems improbable; but Feynman never admires himself too much, his boasting is good-natured, and he laughs at himself at least as much as at others. He was a master of that, of course. Almost half the book is devoted to his practical jokes. During his work in top-secret labs of Los Alamos, he developed a taste for cracking safes; the pinnacle of his burglar's career was the simultaneous cracking of three safes containing *all* US nuclear secrets. A womaniser without narcissism, a braggart without pomp, a jester without malice, a unique, but amiable character - Feynman is the most loveable memoir writer that could ever be. He never took anything for granted - having read an article about the bloodhounds' phenomenal olfactory abilities, he set to investigate humans and found out that ours are not much worse, just underused. He hated pompous fools; the description of an "interdisciplinary" conference, where the narrator's common sense and logic fail in a combat with "intellectuals", is a real tragic comedy. He was open to any new experience (unless it threatened to damage the thinking mechanism - which explains his abstinence from alcohol and drugs of any sort). Since his childhood, when he fixed radios by thought, to his old age, he remained an open palm. An excellent lesson for any of us.
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Summary: Not all physicists are labcoat wearing nerds
Review: A lighthearted romp of entertaining stories that let you know that even brilliant scientists are human. Feynman's egotistic attitude gets annoying for time to time, but I suppose he was entitled to this other "quirk" in his multi-faceted personality. Very good supplemental reading for any serious student of science to remind them not to take life too seriously.
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Summary: A fascinating look at a fascinating individual.
Review: A nobel-prize winning physicist who plays the bongos and paints, both hobbies at a high if unprofessional level, a man with a self-admitted anti-"cultural" bias whose bongo playing was almost good enough to win a prestigious Parisian award, a supreme intellectual who comes from blue-collar origins and never stopped being a "regular person", Richard Feynman demonstrates yet another high-level talent with this book: he's a fascinating storyteller as well. This book is an episodic autobiography; he makes no attempt to give us an in-depth story of his life. He simply tells us many of the interesting things he's seen and done in a long, varied, and interesting life. And he does so with wit and humor that most professional writers should envy. I wish I'd had the chance to meet the man; after reading this book, I almost feel that I did.
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Summary: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman ?
Review: A radio technician, a safe-cracker, an integrator, a painter of nude women, a physicist, a Nobel prize winner, a member of the Manhattan Project, and a man who defines modesty--one of the most entertaining books I have ever read with the best title ever conceived.
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