November, 2016: "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Ralph Leighton, Richard Feynman

	Authors: Ralph Leighton, Richard Feynman
	Genre: Biography, non-fiction, business novel
	Published: 1985
	Pages: 347
	Reading started: October 31st, 2016
	Current progress: Page 347 of 347 (100%)
	Reading ended: January 17th, 2017. This book was successfully finished in 78 days.
	Final review score: 3 of 5

Description

Wikipedia: "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman’s life. Some are lighthearted in tone, such as his fascination with safe-cracking, studying various languages, participating with groups of people who share different interests (such as biology or philosophy), and ventures into art and samba music. Others cover more serious material, including his work on the Manhattan Project (during which his first wife Arline Greenbaum died of tuberculosis) and his critique of the science education system in Brazil. The section "Monster Minds" describes his slightly nervous presentation of his graduate work on the Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory in front of Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and other major figures of the time.

The anecdotes were edited from taped conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton. Its surprise success led to a sequel entitled What Do You Care What Other People Think?, also taken from Leighton’s taped conversations. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! sold more than 500,000 copies.

The closing chapter, "Cargo Cult Science," is adapted from the address that Feynman gave during the 1974 commencement exercises at the California Institute of Technology.

The title derives from a woman’s response at Princeton University when, after she asked the newly arrived Feynman if he wanted cream or lemon in his tea, he absentmindedly requested both.