I know, a science book! The husband and I both took the challenge to read one of the other's favorite books and this was my pick. Feynman is a Nobel prize winning physicist who worked at Los Alamos and at many prestigious universities. He is also an amateur artist, drummer, womanizer, safe-cracker, etc., etc. Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying all the stories of the situations he gets himself into, even if I did kind of fade off any time he started too deep into the science stuff. What I liked the most was the fact that is curious about everything and is always willing to learn. ( )

Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman is a farrago of relatively short(1-10 pages) anecdotes, told by the hilarious physicist RIchard Feynman. The anecdotes don't follow a strict chronological order, but the parts do generally start from the curious boy fiddling with radios, to the undergraduate Feynman to the nobel prize winning, sought after public figure. Besides it's intellectual stories, the book is abound with tales of Feynman picking chicks up in bars, waking up in a unknown rich lady's house, cracking safes, speaking cantonese, playing in brazilian carnavals and drawing nose models.
This book offers a great insight into a real, authentic life of a renowned physicist. This book is a testimony to that fact that fame obscures and overshadows the actual lives of many people. Feynman account goes beyond science, to public issues, bawdy pranks, and how even feynman spent a two years disengaged and detached from physics.
Although Feynman may not have been as influential in public spheres as he was in physics, and although people like Bertrand Russell present a more favorable example of combining science and arts, this book relates a very interesting human and scientific story. ( )

Pompous, self-absorbed, microcosmopolitan apology of an academic jerk, with ready-to-parrot jabs at the establishment and appeal to "critical thinking". Please. ( )

Really interesting and hilarious! You don't need to be a math/science major to read this book. ( )

Feynman reminds me of my uncle Preston Hammer. They were both at Los Alamos, NM on the Manhattan Project during WWII. Both were pranksters. Laughed all the way through this little book. ( )

Loved this book!: I loved this book, could hardly put it down, and bought it for several friends. Brilliant and funny, this Nobel laureate penned a delightful memoir. I recommend it for anyone remotely interested in science who wants to get inside a genius's mind. Seldom are we offered such an opportunity.

This book suffered for years for having been recommended to me by a prize asshole. But it's truly an interesting book for a look into a lost world of society and science. I really do very poor reviews. I'm sorry. But his writing is humorous, the events are entertaining, and his insufferable arrogance mellows to a sort of sweet joy at the life he's managed to live. ( )

A funny collection of anecdotes by one of the physics world's most colorful characters.

Surprisingly funny, give insights to this great mind and also how everyone and everything in this world is actually all very interesting if one cares to observe and "curious". Love this book. Read it so many times!!! ( )

This is an edited collection of reminiscences by Dr Richard P. Feynman, the (in)famous physicist, Nobel Prize winner, and author of The Feynman Lectures. It runs in vaguely chronological order, from his childhood, through to the years he spent working on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos, through to his controversial Cargo Cult Science lecture at Caltech. It's an entertaining read, and often a very funny one, especially when Feynman lets his enthusiasm for physics, life, and partying shine through. It's also (perhaps unusually for an edited biography) interesting in that the way Feynman says (or does not say) certain things reveals an awful lot about the kind of man he was. I'm not sure he was a man I would have liked, myself, but I'm pretty sure he's a man I would have been amused by. I'd recommend it if you have even a passing interest in physics, the scientific method, and their history during the mid-twentieth century. ( )

This book was a collection of anecdotes by Richard Feynman. By turns extremely funny and accessible, then technical and confusing, it was still a fun read. It was just a little uneven. Then there was the long story involving a topless bar near his house. It wasn't explicit or anything, but since I was listening to this as an audiobook with my kids in the car, it made things a little tricky. I wasn't completely crazy about the reader either, but I still enjoyed it. ( )

Wonderful anecdotes (some even true) from the master of 20th century physics. ( )

You cannot consider yourself a physics major if you haven't at least read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Hate him or love him the man was a genius and always had this unique way of thinking about things. Aside from all the hilarious anecdotes ("You ask whether it's a value or not!") to his bizarre ways of picking up women ("Will you sleep with me if you buy me a drink") to reverse psychology ("I stole the door!") perhaps the most important lesson a physics major can take from this book is to be able to understand and derive things for yourself. ( )

This collection of stories of bits and pieces of Feynman's life he writes in the first person. The breadth is amazing, it includes all kinds of different geographies like Japan, Brazil, America and all over. There isn't much of a thread between the stories other than Feynman's age and his amazing mind. He does his best to explain the logical, serial thinking (including some good guesses) behind his seemingly intuitive/genius eruptions of answers that outsiders would imagine as impossible to replicate. The book is also funny because he paints his smart and more average counterparts in realistic lights of suspicious, dubious, amazed, contrarian, all in the best of humor and goodwill, not antagonistic at all. There is a sense of good cheer and the author feels proud to have provided a brief experience of wonder or surprise in the people around him who he's amazed by a small snippet of ingeniousness. So while the book is a series of small snippets showing how smart he is, it is charming in that he's explaining how not smart he is and how genuine everyone is all along the way. ( )

Great stories that serve as life lessons from one of the true geniuses of our time. I wish I had read this book when I was sixteen; it would have had such a great impact on my life, there is so much to glean from Feynman's stories. ( )

He certainly is a curious character. I didn't get much out of this, some anecdotes are amusing, other not all that much. ( )

This was a lot of fun to read. Not only is it intelligent and gives you insight into a brilliant mind, it is sometimes hysterically funny. Feynman is a real character and keeps your interest throughout. I enjoyed the vignette format because it made it easy to read through an episode at night and I could finish one each night. ( )

Self-congratulatory recollections of a very funny self-aware genius. ( )

Feynman is a really entertaining writer, though he sometimes reminds you of the Peanuts strip where Sally is going ``lookit! lookit! lookit!''. ( )

A series of interesting anecdotes from a self absorbed yet interesting personality. Not very much science, not really a biography. ( )

If you want a little science, a little humour, a little entertainment, and a whole lot of fun working up a psychological profile on a very interesting guy, then this book is for you. Feynman deceives others (as a game / challenge), deceives himself, and all the while espouses the virtues of non-deceipt, but you just can't help liking the guy. A fascinating study in human nature and intellectualism. ( )

These are transcribed from dictation, and have the flavor of a dinner table conversation with perhaps a bit too much wine. Feynman is an intense, irritating, inspirational, brilliant guy. I refer back to this book when I need a kick in the pants and a good laugh.

Richard Feynman didn't write these memorable stories; he told them to students and friends who wanted to ensure by publishing them in book form that the living impact of his personality was not lost. While he was working on the Bomb at Los Alamos his young first wife died through a mis-diagnosis of her illness which should have been curable. This must go some way to explaining his lifelong detestation of "experts" and of the pompous and his resolve not to become one of them. He foresaw that the award of the Nobel Prize would cause him trouble, and it did. This collection, and the one in which his experiences on the committee enquiring into the "Challenger" space shuttle disaster appear, should be required reading for anyone who thinks that politicians, bureaucrats, military men and "educators" know what they are doing. ( )

And no, he isn't.

When you think of a Noble Prize winning Physicist you would be forgiven for picturing a rather dry and crusty, tweed wearing character. But how wrong you would be when it comes to the marvel that was and is Richard P Feynman.

Feynman was part of The Manhattan Project and many other 'discoveries' that changed the world of physics. But this collection of stories, edited in a somewhat random fashion, have little to nothing to do with the physics. The book is a collection of anecdotes that chronicle aspects of the great mans life and I can't overstate what an interesting and entertaining read they are. Don't be put off by his stature in the world of science, this is a wonderful read for anyone; and I mean anyone.

From his safe cracking, art shows, appearances as a drummer in Brazil and as a musician for a ballet To his mixing with profession gamblers in Las Vegas and frequenting of 'Gentlemens Clubs'. The extremely strange to the out right hilarious and outrageous, this man has obviously lived a life that would put the rest of us to shame.

And what a read / ride it is. ( )

http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_averag... ( )