
Amazon Prime Free Trial
FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button and confirm your Prime free trial.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited FREE Prime delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$21.60$21.60
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Haydaytx
Save with Used - Good
$6.98$6.98
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Call Me SOLD, LLC
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) Paperback – April 17, 1997
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
There is a newer edition of this item:
Purchase options and add-ons
A New York Times bestseller―the outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original.
Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric―a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.
Black-and-white photographs throughout- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateApril 17, 1997
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- ISBN-100393316041
- ISBN-13978-0393316049
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed
I learned there that innovation is a very difficult thing in the real world.Highlighted by 2,385 Kindle readers
They had wasted all their time memorizing stuff like that, when it could be looked up in fifteen minutes.Highlighted by 2,370 Kindle readers
Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that’s the end of you.Highlighted by 2,115 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
- New York Times Book Review
“Quintessential Feynman―funny, brilliant, bawdy . . . enormously entertaining.”
- The New Yorker
“Buzzes with energy, anecdote and life. It almost makes you want to become a physicist.”
- Science Digest
About the Author
Richard P. Feynman (1918–1988) was a professor at Cornell University and CalTech and received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. In 1986 he served with distinction on the Rogers Commission investigating the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
Ralph Leighton lives in northern California.
Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (April 17, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393316041
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393316049
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #424,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #229 in Science Essays & Commentary (Books)
- #926 in Scientist Biographies
- #3,177 in Physics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.

Bill Gates is a technologist, business leader, and philanthropist. In 1975, he co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen and today he is chair of the Gates Foundation. Bill is the founder of Breakthrough Energy, an effort to commercialize clean energy and other climate-related technologies, and TerraPower, a company investing in developing groundbreaking nuclear technologies. He has three children.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Ralph Leighton (born 13 November 1949) is a biographer, film producer, and friend of the late physicist Richard Feynman. He recorded Feynman relating stories of his life. Leighton has released some of the recordings as The Feynman Tapes. These interviews became the basis for the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, which were later combined into the hardcover anniversary edition Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character. Leighton is an amateur drummer and founder of the group Friends of Tuva. In 1990 he wrote Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book engaging and entertaining. They appreciate the author's insight into a brilliant mind and his humor. The book is described as an entertaining biography of a unique person. Readers describe the author as an incredible storyteller who understands the life of a scientist. They find the character development interesting and unique.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book readable and entertaining. They appreciate the engaging style and inspirational stories about a brilliant thinker. Many readers consider it worth reading and recommend it highly.
"An amazing book that touches on so many areas, and it’s really just a book of stories from Feynman’s life...." Read more
"...Five stars, recommended for people who want to read an interesting and fun book." Read more
"5 stars for the content and as he would have said it, stream of consciousness style...." Read more
"...They are interesting and sometimes funny, but it's hard to believe that he was a serious Nobel physicist." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's insights into a brilliant mind. They find it educational and inspiring, with interesting passages about his imaginative and intuitive thinking. The author shows that science mysteries are fun, not scary, through a stream-of-consciousness style of writing.
"An amazing book that touches on so many areas, and it’s really just a book of stories from Feynman’s life...." Read more
"...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..." Read more
"5 stars for the content and as he would have said it, stream of consciousness style...." Read more
"...all his own, a born storyteller with gift of gab and an extremely inquisitive nature who also immersed himself in music and art...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's humor. They find it quirky, funny, and witty. The author is described as hilarious, fun-loving, and saturated in satire and sarcasm.
"...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...." Read more
"...They are interesting and sometimes funny, but it's hard to believe that he was a serious Nobel physicist." Read more
"...Did I mention this book is very funny? At many points, I found myself laughing out loud...." Read more
"...all of which are rich with adventure, sound scientific thinking and humor...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's storytelling. They find it entertaining and interesting, with vignettes about other great thinkers. Readers appreciate the author's engaging style and his life story. The book is described as charming, intelligent, and inspiring.
"...that touches on so many areas, and it’s really just a book of stories from Feynman’s life...." Read more
"...Baudy, brash with a dynamic flare all his own, a born storyteller with gift of gab and an extremely inquisitive nature who also immersed himself in..." Read more
"Very educative and inspiring book." Read more
"...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..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book. They find it insightful into the life of a scientist and an enjoyable read for those who love science. The book provides some insight into Feynman's scientific mind and adventure.
"...This is a great example of Richard’s willingness to constantly learn...." Read more
"...as a separate story all of which are rich with adventure, sound scientific thinking and humor...." Read more
"...is also very amusing. The book also gives some insight into Feynmann's scientific mind: take for example the story about how he fixed radios as a..." Read more
"This was an enjoyable book to read and understand the life of a scientist. Was encouraged to read it through the Freakonomics podcast...." Read more
Customers find the character development interesting and unique. They appreciate the author's personification, hyperbole, and figurative language. The book provides an accurate portrayal of the whole person, showing his inquisitive personality and psychological idiosyncrasies. Overall, readers consider Richard Feynman a great role model and a human side of a giant of the 20th century.
"...a specific topic, it is purely a book about Richard Feynman... a curious character... indeed...." Read more
"...Also the author perpetually uses personification, hyperbola’s, and different kinds of figurative language to appeal to your senses to make a boring..." Read more
"...this autobiography gives me what I think is an accurate description of the whole person...." Read more
"...because the stories have a good amount of detail and helps show his inquisitive personality...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's pacing. They find the author down-to-earth, honest, and humble. The tone is unpretentious and cheeky, leaving readers envious.
"...The book consist of 5 parts, which are roughly equal to five important periods in Feynman's life...." Read more
"...Baudy, brash with a dynamic flare all his own, a born storyteller with gift of gab and an extremely inquisitive nature who also immersed himself in..." Read more
"...Feynman showed that the mysteries of science are fun, not scary...." Read more
"...I gave the book 4 rather than 5 stars because I felt the book dragged a bit in places...." Read more
Customers find the book boring and uninspiring. They describe it as ordinary, pedestrian musings of an intelligent physicist. Some find the personal narrative silly and disappointing. Overall, readers feel the book is not Feynman's most interesting work.
"He is very self absorbed. Boring read after first couple chapters" Read more
"...that make it easily readable, I believe this is not Feynman's most interesting book...." Read more
"...I finally read it. Ouch---so utterly boring! He is not the Bill Cosby of the Science world as I had thought...." Read more
"...I was expecting more insight on physics. It's Ok. Nothing great." Read more
Reviews with images
An ok experience with this used book
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2024An amazing book that touches on so many areas, and it’s really just a book of stories from Feynman’s life.
Group think, logical fallacies, epistemology, and integrity are just a handful of themes.
The best chapters are Judging Books by their Covers, where Feynman realizes what a goat rope the textbook industry is and basically explains indirectly why American kids get a substandard education compared to the rest of the west, and Cargo Cult Science. In that chapter Feynman speaks to the problems of science and its incentives. It explains the climate hysteria without speaking to it. It speaks to the nonsense about structural racism without speaking to it.
And it confirmed to me that humans are stupid people exceptionally willing to fool themselves.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2013"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.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 20245 stars for the content and as he would have said it, stream of consciousness style. One of a kind person with very little regard for “normal” social conventions. A 20th century intellectual and adventurer.
3 stars for the rambling and sometimes off focus story telling. Found myself speed reading a few sections thinking “ok Feynman get on with it, we get, you’re amazing.”
- Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2024Most of the book is about tricks and schemes he played on others. They are interesting and sometimes funny, but it's hard to believe that he was a serious Nobel physicist.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2024Managed to finish the entire book and was totally worth it! I’ve watched his lectures and this book is equally good.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2023Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a book I could not put down. I read it in two evenings which left me wanting more. From his humble beginnings in Far Rockaway Queens as a high school prodigy to MIT (SB) at the age of 17 and then on to Princeton (Ph.D.), to Cornell and eventually Caltech and the Nobel Prize for pioneering QED this is an autobiography of one of the greatest minds ever in theoretical physics. Baudy, brash with a dynamic flare all his own, a born storyteller with gift of gab and an extremely inquisitive nature who also immersed himself in music and art. Everything he tried his hand at he excelled in. The loves of life and his family were also shared so it was not all technical. His descriptions of his work on the Manhattan Project with Oppenheimer and at Oak Ridge are riveting as is his work on the Rogers Commission to solve the root cause of the Challenger disaster. Those memories give a rare look inside the bureaucracy of NASA and how the upper management tried to hide a known defect in the design of the SRBs. That accident was preventable and Professor Feynman exposed numerous shortcomings in their processes which befuddled Secretary Rogers who had been tasked by President Reagan not to embarrass NASA! In Feynman’s second book “What Do You Care What Other People Think? He devoted half the book to the inner workings of the Rogers Commission and the controversy that arose once the final report was being prepared. I give five stars to his second book as well. My heroes in science have always been Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Richard Phillips Feynman now joins that elite duo in my picks for perhaps the greatest scientist ever.
Top reviews from other countries
JReviewed in Canada on November 18, 20235.0 out of 5 stars Quickly became one of my favourite biographies.
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.
Amazon CustomerReviewed in Sweden on November 25, 20245.0 out of 5 stars bought as a xmas gift
much appreciated, fast delivery
Nagaraj KamathReviewed in India on October 24, 20245.0 out of 5 stars Peer into the mind of a simple man
I finally finished the book. It is surprising to know how the mind works, especially a persistent and curious one. To summarize, he just loved physics and pursued it at his whim. It is a good book that reflects the life of a physicist and how simple things always inspire discoveries.
-
Arda YörükReviewed in Turkey on August 31, 20245.0 out of 5 stars Feynman'ın anılarından oluşan çok akıcı ve keyifli bir kitap
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.
-
HeidlReviewed in Germany on June 5, 20245.0 out of 5 stars lesenswert
Sehr humorvoll erzählt Mister Feynman Erlebnisse aus seinem Leben.
Kurzweilig und amüsant.








