Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. An artist, safe-cracker, practical joker and storyteller, Feynman's life was a series of combustible combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high intelligence, unquenchable curiosity and eternal scepticism. Over a period of years, Feynman's conversations with his friend Ralph Leighton were first taped and then set down as they appear here, little changed from their spoken form, giving a wise, funny, passionate and totally honest self-portrait of one of the greatest men of our age.

• Part One: From Far Rockaway to MIT
• He Fixes Radions by Thinking!
• String Beans
• Who Stole the Door?
• Latin or Italian?
• Always Trying to Escape
• The Chief Research Chemist of the Metaplast Corporation
• Part Two: The Princeton Years
• 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'
• Meeeeeeeeee!
• A Map of the Cat?
• Monster Minds
• Mixing Paints
• A Different Box of Tools
• Mindreaders
• The Amateur Scientist
• Part Three: Feynman, the Bomb, and the Military
• Fizzled Fuses
• Testing Bloodhounds
• Los Alamos from Below
• Safecracker Meets Safecracker
• Uncle Sam Doesn't Need You!
• Part Four: From Cornell to Caltech, with a Touch of Brazil
• The Dignified Professor
• Any Questions
• I Want My Dollar!
• You Just Ask Them?
• Lucky Numbers
• O Americano, Outra Vez!
• Man of a Thousand Tongues
• Certainly, Mr. Big!
• An Offer You Must Refuse
• Part Five: The World of One Physicist
• Would You Solve the Dirac Equation?
• The 7 Percent Solution
• Thirteen Times
• It Sounds Greek to Me!
• But Is It Art?
• Is Electricity Fire?
• Judging Books by Their Covers
• Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake
• Bringing Culture to the Physicists
• Found Out in Paris
• Altered States
• Cargo Cult Science

Well, the guy is admittedly one of the mega-stars of the physicist world, but while reading this book, I only see a self-indulgent man, I definitely wouldn't be interested to have a conversation with, as I would probably punch him out in short order.

If you're into this self-indulgent drivel or are star-struck, go ahead and read it, just don't try to emulate it!