“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character

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.

I'm an engineer, not a physicist, so never knew about this guy but heard Sheldon on BigBang mention him several times. I got the book and learned he (Feyman, not Sheldon) was involved with the Manhattan project and was once head of the physics department at Cal Tech (thus Sheldon's comments). There's not a plot per se in the book but it is some great reading of his telling stories of his childhood, early career, and on. A great chapter about him learning about what all is going on in the bar he sometimes goes to!

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

A very fun and intriguing read. Some science, but mostly how to live and think like a scientist. It’s truly amazing how many interests he had and was able to develop significant competence.

"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.

Most often when we say that we "laughed" at this book or this movie, we mean it figuratively: we found it funny, we smiled, and so on. Not this book. This is the first time in a long while that a book has made me chuckle, snort, and laugh loudly enough for my family to ask what's going on. It's not a humor book, but it is a funny book. Feynman guides the reader through what he probably felt were the most interesting parts of his life, but rather than doing so in a set memoir format ("my greatest influence as a child was so-and-so") he does it by telling stories. It works wonderfully. His stories, of fixing radios as a kid during the Great Depression, picking the locks of colleagues while working at the Manhattan Project, picking girls up in a bar at New Mexico, are little bits of life told as it was really lived, not as it was remembered. The tone of the book is honest, unpretentious and decidedly cheeky. And for the same reasons, it has a lot to teach. Feynman doesn't pretend to be an expert on dating, but you'll find dating tips here, as he learned and applied them (often to unexpected, hilarious effect). He doesn't pretend to be an expert on philosophy, but you'll learn about his outlook on life and how you deal with being part of the project that created the most terrifying weapon on Earth. Feynman doesn't tell you about life as it ought to be, he tells you about life as it is- or was it was for him, at any rate. It's a rewarding read.

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.

Any Feinman book is worth it.

This book contains unforgettable and hilarious moments during the life of Richard Feynman. It's a lovely book that takes you through the life of the 20th century physicist, which covers many aspects during Feynman's life. It's a great book if you want to learn about the condition's of Los Alamos, or life as a professor at Caltech.

I've heard about Richard Feynman, how ecclectic the guy was and, especially, how good he was to explain complicated things to others. This is the most recommended introductory book to Richard Feynman. It was very nice to read. Each chapter can be read separately on its own. Most explanations are easy to follow, but I struggled with some. Truly interesting character. I highly recommed the book.

Nice anecdotes of a brilliant man. Mr. Feynman strikes me as a man that I would like to have a beer with - he is nothing like the stereotype scientists we see in movies these days.

Eğer bilime, şeylerin nasıl olduğuna ve arkasındaki hikayelere meraklıysanız soluksuz okuyabileceğiniz bir kitap. Feynman'ın üslubu her zamanki gibi çok akıcı ve keyifli. Tabii ki fizik, matematik ve analitik düşünmeye olan ilgisini kitabın her yerinde hissediyorsunuz.

題名どうり、何処までが真実でどこから冗談話なのか分からない。分かるのは著者の思考法がユニークで自由闊達、何よりも興味対象が並はずれ広い。量子力学が専攻だが、暗号解読、音楽、ダンス、教育、ストリップ鑑賞、玄人と素人への口説き方の違い？、言語（含む日本語）、幻覚症状等、何にでも手を出す。それらの合間に量子力学を研究し、ノーベル物理学賞を得るのだから、天才中の天才の頭脳です。逆に、名誉や地位には一切興味が無くノーベル賞を受賞したら、その権威でトップレス・バーに通えなくなると一度は辞退したとか？ 異文化が好きでブラジル滞在時、懸命にノートを取る学生の授業態度に関心し、質問をしたら内容は丸暗記しているが論理を理解してないので、回答できないと知り啞然とする。今でもどこかの国は同じです。私は学生時代本書を読み、「学者の半分も量子力学を理解してない」との一節に触れ、物理学から離れました。宇宙人のような著者の試行錯誤と興味の対象を広げる生き方は大変参考になります。