Rating: 
Summary: A great collection of stories
Review: It was a pleasure to read these collected stories from Feynman's life. Each story is entertaining and often humorous or enlightening. Most remarkable I think is how honest these stories are. Feynman includes some very strange stories - particularly one about him hanging out in Vegas and trying to pick up women - that seem a bit out of place. But I think that is part of the appeal of this book: it is a very honest look at Feynman's rich life.In a way, Feynman reminds me of the title character from Oliver Sack's "An Anthropologist on Mars" about an autistic woman who describes herself as continuously observing human behavior like an anthropologist on Mars. Feynman is constantly trying to do experiments to see how other people respond, including many enjoyable practical jokes. Maybe humans were sort of like physics for him, and he was just trying to perturb the system and see how they worked. The real message I got out of these stories was how Feynman was so willing to try everything - particularly the things he was not very good at. He's a bad artist, so he decides to learn how to draw and ends up getting his own art show. He's not very musical, so he learns to play drums and ends up recording the music for a ballet. He doesn't know any biology, so he starts learning and ends up doing experiments with JD Watson. In one section he delves into Mayan history and starts deciphering the codecs. In another memorable chapter he learns the art of safecracking while at Los Alamos. This book sort of inspires me to try something I stink at and see how much I can accomplish. For Feynman, it seems like there was nothing he couldn't do. Overall I think you will be glad if you get this book. However, I also got the book "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" and that was not as enjoyable. It was more of a collection of lectures he gave and was less personal. There was also considerable overlap in the stories. My only real complaint is that there was not enough science in the stories, but there are plenty of other books by Feynman for that (QED and Six Easy Pieces among others). So if you haven't been introduced to Dick Feynman's writing, do yourself a favor and get "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary Renaissance Man
Review: Richard Feynman is able to describe his unique view of many critical events of the the turbulent twentieth century. From a Physics Nobel prize, to his work on the atomic bomb, his voracious quest for knowledge is patterned on his engaging personality and indelible pursuit of truth. His descriptive vignettes are at time hilariously funny, at other times intellectually stimulating. Scientists are not generally known for their ability to connect their personal
characteristics with their professional interests, but Feynman
is able to with a hearty aplomb. This book should be interesting to scientists and laymen alike.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining on so many levels!
Review: I've read this book probably six or seven times over the last 18 years, and each time the experience is different and wonderful. I loved it at 11 when I didn't understand one bit of the math and science, and have only appreciated it more as I learned more and finally got a physics Ph.D. of my own. Feynman had such a rich life that there's something in his adventures for everyone, whether you're a scientist, historian, musician, artist, or linguist. Yes, there are certain things about the man that are less than perfectly likeable, notably his arrogance and his attitude toward women, but if you can separate the book from the person, I don't see how anyone can classify this as anything other than a 5-star experience.
Rating:
Summary: Adventures in the life of a physicist.
Review: I always thougth that theoretical physicists were these super smart guys sitting around the black board drawing weird diagrams of atom smashing and writing math forumulas that predict that life cannot exist and pondering the meaning of things like gravity and magnetism. Now the truth is out, they are weird, but in an normal sort of insane way. They have these great insights and then spend the rest of their lives banging away at the great unsolvable problems like "what do women want" and "where to find a hotel in city that's full up." I really liked this book. It brings out the human side of Dr. Feynman. I've read his lectures on physics books and they are dry and full of stuff I've long forgotten. But after reading about his adventures with the California state school system in picking a science text book had me rolling on the ground laughing. As a student I always wondered how these bad textbooks got sent down to torment me and now I know. It surely wasn't Richard's fault! Anyway a good read about the life of one who saw life through a different set of colored glasses.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting for some
Review: Not exactly hilarous in my opinion, as some have suggested, but entertaining in the way that such a brilliant man was in so many ways a normal everyday Joe. Wonderful stories about a colorful life and extraordinary circumstances outline his attempt to understand human nature and whole range of characters he has met. It's not Dave Barry meets Einstein, but it is insightful and a quick read, leaving you with more than you started with.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, he is. No, he isn't.
Review: I developed an interest in (quantum) physics ever since reading Gary Zukhov's The Dancing Wu-Li Masters sometime in the '80s. I was mesmerised by the whole Shrodinger's Cat thought experiment; if these really smart people could have a little fun, then, by golly, the science can't be all that impossible to understand. Then I read Nick Herbert's Quantum Reality. More of the same...lots of counter-intuitive fun science that has little to do with how my world works [well, it has everything to do with how my world works, but I just don't get to experience it at a primary level]. The last thing I read was Brian Greenes's The Elegant Universe. I searched high and low for something stimulating, put in terms my little brain could understand. Nothing.
I had picked up Surely You're Joking on numerous occasions. But I deferred, simply because it was about the scientist instead of the science. I was interested in the science, not the people behind the science. I thought, 'A bunch of technically astute individuals who talk waaay above my technically incompetent level.'
It's too bad, really. The scientist behind the science is just as counter-intuitive and remarkable as the science. A master story teller, Feynman gives wonderful insight into the irreverent antics of one scientist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. He gives the reader a layman's view of the world as it is from that of a brilliant thinker. Safe-cracker, ladies man, artist, anthropologist. Feynman will not disappoint in keeping you mesmerized by his antics and analysis. The book is an easy and comfortable read that might just inspire you to find that artist or physicist or lock-pick in you. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: bargain for your brain
Review: inspired, enlightening, powerfully disarming and highly entertaining. What a bargain - so much wisdom for that price!
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: Simply superb. Feyman is hilarious. A must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Calculated
Review: This book certainly taught me a lot about Richard Feynman's outlook and perception - especially of himself. It left me feeling rather sad for him as a person. 1. He goes out of his way to appear as unsophisticated as possible. It's faux, engineered by a very calculating person.
2. He uses the appearance of unsophistication to freely criticize people who don't think and act like he does. The only people he seems to respect are physicists, mainly those associated with Los Alamos in the 1940's.
3. He projects discomfort with anything approaching emotional connectedness. He dedicates about two sentences to his reactions when his wife died of TB after an extended illness. He's far more interested in little pointless mail games he played with her the last year of her life. Feynman's writing style is part of this intentional persona of unsophistication. Unfortunately, it negatively impacts the communication of quite a few stories in the book. I just don't buy many of the stories, especially the self-deprecating ones aimed at saying, "uh, I just did something totally innocent, and everybody thought I solved a big problem."
Rating: 
Summary: Memories of an egomaniac
Review: Feynman certainly was a genius. But his self-centered stories make him utterly dislikable. His constant bragging about what a hell of a guy he is took all the fun out of the book.
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