A review by scott_froggers
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman

5.0

This book will have a permanent space on my bookshelf. It's such a unique collection of wild and entertaining stories and anecdotes, and each is as informative as it is entertaining. One of the more valuable aspects of this book is that it teaches the reader what it means to be a passionate, objective scientist, and how to have fun while doing it.
It's rare for a book to get me to laugh audibly, so understand how hilarious I found chapter six when my family could hear me laughing in the middle of the night in my room!
Of course not everyone will enjoy this book as much as I did, we all have different ideas of comedy and interest. However, I have no doubt that prospective scientists have a wonderful resource here to instruct them on the soul behind science.


EDIT (second read):
I stand by my words from my first read of this book, and I certainly am reminded of some extremely important virtues in science. However, I also realised that this book isn't perfect! There were some chapters that were perhaps questionable for Feynman's character, and had no scientific value. Only a comedic value that would be funnier for the average somewhat-sexist 1980s man. I would recommend for anyone who doesn't want to bother with those to skip pt. 4 chapter 5 & 9 in particular. But this remains one of my favourite books, full of lessons in science I'll keep close to me.