Recently, I finished the book Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! It’s a compilation of a history of lectures by Dr Richard Feynman, a Nobel Laureate in physics about quantum electrodynamics.
From the start, the book seems somewhat unapproachable. It dives right into the lectures and doesn’t make a lot of sense. For this reason, after reading the first few chapters, I didn’t touch it for another two weeks. After deciding to pick up the book again, I started setting solid goals for myself. I figured reading five chapters would be sufficient. The more that you read, the better the book gets. I believe that the best part of this book is that because these are transcribed lectures, it feels like Dr Feynman is talking directly to you. This was one of the things that drove me away the first time; I wasn’t used to a book which seemed to talk directly to you.
These lectures are filled with details, and like I mentioned above; because these are essentially transcribed lectures, the humour of Dr Feynman is directly portrayed in the story. While there are some… mature parts in this story, it’s noted that these chapters give the story an experience where it feels like you’re living with him and experiencing the same experiences he details in his lectures with him.
After reading this book, I watched some lectures from Dr Feynman, and the difference between the lecture and the book is minimal. Overall, I give this a book a 9/10. Dr Feynman is an amazing storyteller and his humor portrayed in the story is magnificent. I recommend everyone to read this book.
-Ryan
This sounds like an excellent book; I've never really liked books that are just raw compendiums of other works with no dressing, but this seems to be an exception.
ReplyDelete"feels like Dr. Feynman is talking directly to you" this interested me, I have never read a book like that. I don't know that I will check it out, but if I ever come across the book, I'll give it a read.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book on a vacation a few years back and absolutely loving it. I didn't know that the book contained lectures until I read this post. The humor and stories in the book were amazing. I didn't really understand the more mature parts, but the rest of the book more than made up for it.
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