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

All I knew about Feynman was that he was a great physicist but I didn’t know how eventful of a life he lived. Richard Feynman gives the reader a first hand look into the experiences that made him into one of the most successful physicists of all-time. He gives a glimpse into fixing up radios as a youngster, experimenting in his college years, and working with other physicists in his older days with such humor mixed with an obviously enormous amount of knowledge. Besides making a significant contribution to the Manhattan Project at Los Alomos, and receiving a Nobel Prize, Feynman constantly developed many varied interests and pursued them passionately. Don’t worry if you aren’t a physics major for Feynman spends relatively little time on physics and instead concentrates on his many other interests – his interpersonal relationships (he was married three times, and also wrote quite a bit about his efforts to meet women in between), and his scuffles with government and university bureaucracies. In one amusing anecdote, he agrees to give a talk for a government program only on the condition that he will not sign his name more than thirteen times in the required paperwork… and sure enough a 14th signature is required and the aftermath is hilarious.