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"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character Kindle Edition

by Richard P. Feynman (Author), Ralph Leighton (Author), Edward Hutchings (Editor), Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 11,762 ratings

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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.

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352 pages
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W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

June 28, 2010
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I learned there that innovation is a very difficult thing in the real world.
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They had wasted all their time memorizing stuff like that, when it could be looked up in fifteen minutes.
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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.
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Editorial Reviews

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Quintessential Feynman—funny, brilliant, bawdy . . . enormously entertaining.

Amazon.com Review

A series of anecdotes 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 his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. 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 simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize 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 vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

A chain reaction is not a bad analogy for Feynman's life. From a critical mass of gray matter it goes off in all directions, producing both heat and light.

A storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain. Feynman proves once again that it is possible to laugh out loud and scratch your head at the same time.--K. C. Cole

Books like this are temptations--to give up reading and devote life to rereading...The book is a litmus paper: anyone who can read it without laughing out loud is bad crazy.

Feynman is legendary among his colleagues for his brilliance and his eccentricity...It's not hard to smile all the way through.

Quintessential Feynman--funny, brilliant, bawdy...enormously entertaining.

A storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain. He proves once again that it is possible to laugh out loud and scratch your head at the same time.

Buzzes with energy, anecdote and life. It almost makes you want to become a physicist.

Quintessential Feynman--funny, brilliant, bawdy . . . enormously entertaining. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From AudioFile

Having won the Nobel Prize in physics, as well as having solved the mystery of liquid helium and the probabilities of gambling odds with Nick the Greek, Mr. Feynman's escapades are worthy of being read aloud. Subtitled Adventures of a Curious Character, this memoir presents his many interests with enthusiasm. Raymond Todd seems to get as much pleasure out of the diversities of Feynman's career as the scientist did through living them. J.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

RICHARD FEYNMAN was, until his death in 1988, the most famous physicist in the world. Only an infinitesimal part of the general population could understand his mathematical physics, but his outgoing and sunny personality, his gift for exposition, his habit of playing the bongo drums, and his testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster turned him into a celebrity. Richard Feynman died in 1988 after a long illness. Freeman Dyson, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, called him 'the most original mind of his generation', while in its obituary The New York Times described him as 'arguably the most brilliant, iconoclastic and influential of the postwar generation of theoretical physicists'. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Library Journal

Raymond Todd gives an extraordinary performance bringing to evanescent life the amusing adventures of this Nobel prize-winning physicist. Feynman was the quintessential inquirer whose investigations led him, at times, to sophisticated equations, at other times to a kind of social mischief that is delightful in its purity and inspiring in its intellectual courage. Based upon an impromptu talk during drum-playing sessions with his friend Ralph Leighton, this surprise best seller is packed with unforgettable anecdotes. Working at Los Alamos, Feynman cracked safes containing the secrets of the bomb. He challenged an abacus salesman to an arithmetical duel. He trained himself to sniff like a bloodhound. He played frigideira in a Brazilian samba band. In Las Vegas, he learned the ways of gamblers and show girls. He gave his first physics lecture in front of Einstein. Refreshingly honest, iconoclastic, thought-provoking, this one-of-a-kind classic is a must for every collection.?Peter Josyph, New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Publisher

9 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

History will remember Nobel Prize–winning physicist Feynman (1918–1988), for his work in quantum physics and his role in the investigation of the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. Contemporary readers and listeners, however, will remember him best for his reputation as a free-thinking iconoclast whose personal adventures were hilarious, insightful and inspiring. Todd does a fabulous job of conveying Feynman's infectious enthusiasm and childlike sense of wonder with his energetic portrayal of the scientist. He's adept even in difficult sections, such as when Feynman "speaks Italian" and "Chinese"—inventing completely made-up but accurate sounding languages. Todd does a good job of portraying Feynman's inquisitive manner and conveys the book's message and attitude with aplomb. While he sounds nothing like the late physicist (Feynman— the subject of James Gleick's Genius—had a thick Long Island accent and sounded more like a cross between Yogi Bear and The Honeymooners' Ed Norton), Todd's clean, polite voice is a revelation. Based on the Norton paperback. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003V1WXKU
Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (June 28, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 28, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2714 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #135,447 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #53 in Biographies of Scientists
- #123 in Physics (Kindle Store)
- #307 in Scientist Biographies

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4.5 11,762 ratings

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Richard P. Feynman
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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.
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Edward Hutchings
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Ralph Leighton
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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.
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LA in Dallas

A lot of ham, but absolutely no baloney

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2023

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Here's a bit of advice if you're thinking of reading "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character. First watch a 15 min video called "My friend Richard Feynman" by Leonard Susskind. In it Susskind talks about Feynman. He doesn't skip over Feynman's faults, but it is obvious that Susskind knew and truly loved Feynman. Nothing you can do in 15 min will give you a better understanding of Feynman's character. The words "A lot of ham, but absolutely no baloney" are a quote from Susskind's video.

I read Surely You're Joking shortly after it came out in 1985, as did several of my coworkers. There were differing opinions. I enjoyed it. To me it reads as if Feynman believed he could get away with expressing his unfiltered thoughts publicly. Some of those thoughts were of the inside kind that most people know better than to say out loud. If Feynman thought he could get away with this, he was right! The book was a best-seller, and some of us, at least, interpreted as an extremely intelligent and entertaining man expressing the thoughts that many of his tribe are secretly afraid to share.

Here's my advice to readers of Surely You're Joking. As you read, you will encounter bits that strike you as reprehensible. When that happens, try to think hard about them from Feynman's point of view. In many, perhaps most, such cases you will decide that the passages in question are really as reprehensible as you first thought. But in others you may realize they are not. Let me give an example. In the chapter "Los Alamos from Below" he talks about how he learned that the atomic bomb was going to be tested.

'After we’d made the calculations, the next thing that happened, of course, was the test. I was actually at home on a short vacation at that time, after my wife died, and so I got a message that said, “The baby is expected on such and such a day.”'

I overheard two of my coworkers expressing their outrage at this casual, apparently callous mention of his wife's death. They clearly thought he should have expressed more pain. My thought was "A man who had felt less, might." (Bonus points if you recognize the quote!) After all, he's talking about Los Alamos with a friend 40 years after the events in question. It would not be sensible to derail the conversation with a eulogy for Arlene.

In fact, the sequel "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character contains a chapter entitled “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” about his love for and marriage with Arlene. Ralph Leighton, who compiled these recollections, describes it as follows

"The story of Arlene, from which the title of this book was taken, was painful for Feynman to recount. It was assembled over the past ten years out of pieces from six different stories. When it was finally complete, Feynman was especially fond of this story, and happy to share it with others."

So, give the guy a break, OK?

An entertaining book, but perhaps too unfiltered for many readers.

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J. Tietz

Informs with wit

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023

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I didn’t expect a famous scientist to have such an exciting life or to write with such a witty and engaging style. I liked the book enough to by a second copy after loaning my first copy to a friend who moved away without returning it. And I don’t buy a second copy of a book I’ve read all that often.

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Xiangqin Cui

Great book, good read! Would not recommend for school projects though.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2020

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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

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Victorina Shandarin

It’s a great book by a genius scientist. He tells stories about his life and science with humour

Reviewed in Canada on December 15, 2023

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We own this book - my husband is a scientist and this is one of his favourite books.
I ordered 2 books: for my grandson and a friend.

Cristobal Sayrols Estrada

Amazing Biography of one of history's most curious characters.

Reviewed in Mexico on April 19, 2023

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How can you not fall in love of a book like this? Set during world war 2, this book is a biography of one of the most influential and peculiar characters involved in the manhattan project. If you are interested in the history of the creation of the atomic bombs or are just looking for a book to have a good time then this is the book for you. This is a page turner.

Vitaly

Muy bien

Reviewed in Spain on December 27, 2023

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Muy interesante

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mjr

Richard Feynman

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2023

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Looks very good. Great admirer.

Shashank

Book is just flawless, the book is awesome, the quality is nice too.

Reviewed in India on September 18, 2023

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Book is just flawless, the book is awesome, the quality is great too. I haven't read it completely but from what I've read and what I've gathered about feynman in all these years is that, this man was just something else.

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