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Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character | 
| Authors: Ralph Leighton, Richard P. Feynman
Creator: Edward Hutchings
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.99
You Save: £2.00 (22%)
New (31) Used (13) from £1.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 5107
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Vintage edition
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 009917331X
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780099173311
ASIN: 009917331X
Publication Date: June 7, 1992
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
A series of anecdotes, such as are included in Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in this engagingly eccentric book. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985, simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realise that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems, and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigour and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Like the Essays of Montaigne - Wit, Wisdom and Vitality October 30, 2008
I'm a big fun of Charlie Munger's writings and he put me in the direction of this book. It's deceptively simple. You start reading and think these are twee stories well told. It took me a couple of months to get really into it, but then each chapter needed to be read slowly to absorb its insight and idiosyncratic wisdom.
I love the way he says something by weaving it with stories from every day life, where he was at a particular time, what he did, and what happened afterwards.
I'm a non-conformist, and I found Feynman a reassuring and inspiring kindred spirit. He's not impressed by much. He'd rather have turned down the Nobel Prize and he has a playful attitude to sex, authority and responsibility. What a cool and brilliant man!
Feynman never got out of his box, because he never had one! August 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Part physicist, part prankster, part musician, part teacher, part genius, part story teller, part little boy and all human being, this is the true story of Richard Feynman. He was a man with an insatiable curiosity, and had a zest to explore the world of physics, human nature and himself.
The stories in the book are funny, entertaining and enlightening. Feynman never got out of his box, because he never had one. From the gifted young boy who fixed radios by thinking to the top notch physicist who could explain concepts to laymen like no one else, Feynman was one of a kind.
Well worth the read!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
 I just don't understand July 31, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just don't understand why this book recieves such good reviews? I found it a boring read - the type of stories that boring people try to regale you with whilst stuck on a train or other public places where escape from their witterings is hard.
hilarious and bizarre anecdotes July 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
hilarious annotation of improbably bizarre but somehow believable happenings in the life of this extraordinary man. ok, sometimes he comes accross as maybe lacking in the empathy department , and as construing situations involving human interaction as challenges to find something ridiculously unconventional to do with them - but at a certain level it is funny.
Mr Feynman, you are awful...but I like you! January 22, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
What an interesting book! Richard Feynman was an acknowledged genius and this is not an autobiography in the normal sense. Compiled from a series of interviews set up for the purpose, Feynman's sense of fun and sheer joy of physics, maths and life in general shines through.
He is not shy in taking credit where it is due - he certainly "gets" things really quickly where others struggle - but is also surprisingly honest when describing his relationships for example and is quite happy to acknowledge the efforts made by others. This is an easy book to "dip" into and one can also sit down and devote significant time to it. Not only is this one of the best science books I have read it is one of the best biographies I have read full stop.
I can't help feeling that if you were to happen acros RF in a bar (and that would not be an unusual occurrence) you would find him a pleasant and interesting companion.
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