Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
by James Gleick
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I recently finished reading Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick. I’m a big fan of Gleick’s. His book on Isaac Newton was brilliant. And in this bio of Feynman, who was one of the midwives of the atomic bomb, Gleick illustrates just how important Feynman’s thinking has been to our modern understanding of physics, and therefore, of energy. Feynman grappled with the big questions about matter, science, and the quest for human knowledge and understanding. One of my...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Feynman-ophiles and everybody else
If James Gleick wasn't already my favorite science author for his book "Chaos," he certainly is now.
Richard Feynman has always had a charm that just leaps out of his stories, but Gleick has composed an articulate and revealing account that makes Feynman more than just a few exaggerated anecdotes.
"Genius" reveals Feynman as a man of incredible determination and intellect faced with situations that, frankly, very few people can relate to. He worked on the Manhattan Pr...more
Richard Feynman has always had a charm that just leaps out of his stories, but Gleick has composed an articulate and revealing account that makes Feynman more than just a few exaggerated anecdotes.
"Genius" reveals Feynman as a man of incredible determination and intellect faced with situations that, frankly, very few people can relate to. He worked on the Manhattan Pr...more
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Read in January, 2002
I learned about Feynman as a teen, when I happened across an interview with him on tv. His character and intellect fascinated me, and years later I decided to learn more about him.
Gleick covers Feynman's entire life in this biography. His prose is good, and he maintains a pleasing balance of anecdote and historical fact. Feynman had a large, vital personality, and Gleick is able to convey this without parroting the tone and content that Feynman uses in his autobiographical work. I've alw...more
Gleick covers Feynman's entire life in this biography. His prose is good, and he maintains a pleasing balance of anecdote and historical fact. Feynman had a large, vital personality, and Gleick is able to convey this without parroting the tone and content that Feynman uses in his autobiographical work. I've alw...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
I don't understand anything about physics, but I love this biography-- that's how good it is. Written by former editor/reporter for the NY Times, James Gleick, this biography of Richard Feynman (physicist who was pretty much a rock star) is fascinating. It's a human story about this charismatic genius, there's history in it, science of course...the prose is restrained and elegant. It's just so well written, and about such an interesting person in the history of the world. It satiates a curiosity...more
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Read in March, 2006
Biography of a man and of the science that he helped revolutionize. A beautiful treatment of Richard Feynman, sympathetic to his more amusing quirks but aware of his faults and the more negative aspects to his personality. Also a good review of the birth of quantum physics, with side inquiries into the lives and personalities of Feynman's friends and rivals: Gell-Mann, Schwinger, Dyson, Oppenheimer. The level of detail and the multiple points of view create the best of biographies: it is left...more
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Read in January, 2003
i lost this book before i finished, but i remember loving it. unfortunately, my outta sight, outta mind tendency caused me to promptly forget about it. must read it. richard feynman is so cool! aha! i have just been thinking about what to listen to on my mega road trip, this summer, and now i know - feynman's lectures. imagine...three weeks of driving through wyoming, montana, and nodak, listening to lectures on physics and stopping every so often to go for a bike ride! oh my! you wanna...more
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recommends it for:
Anyone, but especially if you have interest in science or physics
A book that really re-awakened my inner science and math geek. In addition it introduced me to Feynman. I'm sure his name came up back in classes I took, but there is so much here that you'd never get from a one-liner in a textbook. A very interesting character.
By funny happenstance, I read this right before reading Cosmic Banditos by Weisbecker. Cosmic coincidence?
-Jeremy
By funny happenstance, I read this right before reading Cosmic Banditos by Weisbecker. Cosmic coincidence?
-Jeremy
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Read in February, 2008
Feynman is one of my personal heroes, and this book was my first exposure to him. I first read it several years ago and am re-reading it after recommending it to a friend. Gleik's book achieves a perfect balance between the story of the man, and the science that he lived for. Some of the quantum stuff may be too much for bio-fans, but science nerds with taste for quantum physics will eat it up like candy. An amazing book about an amazing man.
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Read in June, 2005
I didn't acctually read this book, I listend to it on tape on a long trip to Blanding, Utah. I came away wondering why, if Feynman had done as much for modern physics as Einstein, why more of us haven't heard of him. Perhaps it's because we don't understand what he did. Which I don't. As proof of that, I can't explain it or remember it well two and a half years after listening to this book for about 10 hours.
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Read in January, 2008
I've read a few books on Feynman, and this was the one that told his entire story. It really gets into a lot of technical areas, too. I was more interested in his tomfoolery, so this one was quite a chore to get through. The research is obviously fantastic, but it's not something that I'd recommend reading. There are shorter works that are better.
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
brainiacs, life lovers, miscreants
The Merry Pranksters could not hold a particle beam to Richard Feynman, the subject of James Gleik's _Genius_.
Not only a masterful ne'er do well, also the founder of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman can pick locks, expose the skullduggery of a tragic Shuttle launch *and* posit and answer the query" Why does the Sun have a crisp edge?
Not only a masterful ne'er do well, also the founder of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman can pick locks, expose the skullduggery of a tragic Shuttle launch *and* posit and answer the query" Why does the Sun have a crisp edge?
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Read in June, 2007
Big disappointment. Coming off of American Prometheus, the fantastic biography of Robert Oppenheimer, and having read a book or two of Gleick's earlier stuff, I was surprised that I couldn't even finish the damned thing. Tossed it into my donation pile a hundred pages in.
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Read in August, 2008
I'm a sucker for science biographies. What I did like was an outsider's perspective on Feynman's life (as opposed to "Surely You're Joking"), but this book got a little to technical in its explanations of Feynman's physics, which was -- for a layman -- difficult to understand.
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Read in August, 2005
recommends it for:
admirers of very fucking smart people
Hands down Feynman was the most brilliant man of the the second half of the twentieth century. This book is not only for lovers of science, he was an very interesting man who did some amazing work in Quantum Electro Dynamics while drinking beer at his local strip clubs.
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Feynman is fascinating. Wonderful biography. Read it. The movie "Real Genius" is kind of an homage to Feynman. Kilmer's performance is Feynmanian!
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I thought this biography sucked. Though he may have had his facts exactly right, he missed the whole spirit of what made Feynman cool. I don't recommend it. I was very disappointed, too, because he did such a great job with the Chaos book.
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Read in January, 2008
Interesting biography on the life and science of physicist Richard Feynman. Notable for his work on the Manhattan project and quantum electrodynamics. He's a very unique character with an interesting perspective on life and science
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doesn't really add anything to "surely you're joking" and "what do you care what other people think?" that we couldn't live without. it was interesting, but most of the same information is available in more-engaging form elsewhere.
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Read in December, 2006
A wonderful look at one of the most capacious, interesting and important minds of the 20th Century. Feynman's life and contribution to science should be read by anyone who has a remote interest into how the world works.
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Read in January, 1995
An accessible and quick read about a man who epitomizes what it means to be a life long learner. His wonder, his intellect, his joy for life and his deep convictions about the world are all captured by Gleick.
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