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