Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character

by Richard P. Feynman

Book Overview

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) thrived on outrageous adventures. In the phenomenal national bestsellers "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman " and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" the Nobel... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393061329
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: W. W. Norton
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 1.6" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!

If Feynman were only a brilliant physicist he would have been an amazing man. But he was so much more. Reading this book I found that I really got to know what he was about. Every essay was interesting and entertaining. The man knew how to live life and if I manage to have half the experiences he did I well have had a great life. It seems like he was constantly exploring what the world had to offer. It is truly a shame he is no longer with us because I would have loved to hear him live. If you only care about physics this book is not for you but if you want to know about life in general this book is for you. He is truly and inspring and motivational figure. I intend to purchase more books and cds on Feynman.

If you like Feynman, you will like the CD very much!

The stories in the book are the same as those in the well known Surely you're joking and What do you care what other people think. I had read those (plus James Gleick's 'Genius'), but still liked this book very much because of the accompanying CD. Play the CD first, then read the stories again - that really made the stories come to live for me!

A "M-U-S-T"

I was introduced to "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman" 10 years ago by a friend of mine. I read with delight that marvelous book many times ever since. I am glad that Mr Leighton took the time to put together all the adventures of that charming and "curious character". In doing so, he allows us the pleasure of reading them in a chronological order, giving us the possibility to brush a better picture of the man behind the adventures... A absolute MUST!

curious indeed

This is a wonderful read....a chance to listen to a great scientist with a wonderful quirky mind. It is all interesting, some of it very touching, but the part on the investigation of the Challenger explosion is a classic study in bureaucratic malingering.

Two books in one + CD...

I have purchased almost all Feynman books so far. Be forewarned. This book is a compilation of "Surely your joking..." and "What do you care what..." plus a bonus CD audio recording of a talk which was "in-te-res-ting" ( a Feynmanism). If I had realized this, I would only have bought this book instead of all three. For a more global and thorough exposition of his life, consider Gleick's '93 book "Genius". For those wondering if they should find anything out about Feynman... There was a student that was asked if he wanted to come along to hear Feynman speak. "No. I'm going to study instead." Years later he was still kicking himself for passing up the opportunity. Feynman has this effect. Once you find out about him, you'll probably want to have done so earlier. What's in store for you is a look back from the 20's to the 80's through the eyes of a physicist that married his sweet heart against the advice of family and lost her to tuberculosis a short time before a cure, rubbed elbows with the greats Einstein, Bohr, Dyson, Schwinger, Fermi etc, patrioticly worked on anti-aircraft defenses, helped build the atomic bomb, was bold enough to look at it directly behind a windshield that blocked the harmful ultra violet, cracked safes, deciphered Mayan hieroglyphs, learned to speak and taught in Portuguese, ironed out the problems in Quantum Electrodynamics, went around Caltech acting weird from a concussion for three weeks before any one noticed, "Well, next time say something!", he scolded. The '65 Nobel prize: "You'll raise more of a fuss if you refuse it.", learned to draw, play drums, inspired nanotechnologists, quantum computing research and after surviving 10 years of cancer helped trackdown the problem with the Space Shuttle Columbia and lastly said: "I'd hate to die twice. It's boring!"