Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

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Description

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
A series of anecdotes shouldn’t by rights add up to an autobiography, but that’s just probably the most 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 (take a look at “Is Electricity Fire?”), unafraid to offend (see “You Just Ask Them?”), Feynman informs by entertaining. It’s imaginable to enjoy Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky writer as know-it-all hero. Sooner or later, alternatively, attentive readers realize that underneath the entire merriment simmers a running observation on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to surrender on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had a majority of 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

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