What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Further Adventures of a Curious Character

By: Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. What Do You Care What Other People Think? is Feynman's last literary legacy, prepared with his friend and fellow drummer, Ralph Leighton.

Among the book's many tales we meet Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love's irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger's explosion in 1986, and we relive the moment when Feynman revealed the disaster's cause by an elegant experiment: dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out, misshapen.

©1988 Gweneth Feynman and Ralph Leighton (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Feynman's voice echoes raw and direct.' (The New York Times Book Review)

First 50% was fun, last 50% was a boring lecture

I love that this book has a chapter about Arline, his first wife who was only mentioned briefly in ‘Surely You’re Joking...’ It was such a tragic romantic story but it helps us in getting to know a different side of Feynman.

The Arline story was in the first 25% of the book. A couple of chapters after that were letters written by other people about Feynman. Then the rest of the book was about his work helping NASA, ended with several chapters on rocket science.

The NASA part started ok in the beginning, still had the same feeling as ‘Surely You’re Joking...’ but after 2-3 hours I started wondering, “when will this part of the story end?! Enough already!” Apparently it went on till the end of the book. The last 2-3 chapters were not even stories anymore, it was lectures about rocket that could be interesting for people who are into it, but not me. Couldnt even understood half of it. Ended up listening with 2x speed just to get it over it.

Great book

Great Book ! The most memorable part is the report of the failed space shuttle chapters 10 - 12 bares listening to more than one time. I loved listening to this book and reader . I Have totally changed my mind about the grounding of the Space Shuttle program.... it's a wonder it lasted as long as it did. I will remember the saying , The key to Heaven can also open the door to Hell.

Wow! What a wonderful book!

I laughed and cried and was amazed! What a delight to the senses. Absolutely one of my all time favorites.

So much fun

I listened to this book nonstop. It was so captivating and fun. Definitely it was a well spent 6h

A must have for fans of feynman

Great narrator, excellent content, a real easy to listen to book. Does have a few dull spots but theyre brushed over quickly due the writing style and content.

Great read of great man!

Interesting story of part of Feynman’s life. Well narrated by Raymond Todd.
Entertaining and informative.

Feynman Fan

This is the second Feynman book I have enjoyed in Audio. He is a delightful man, the narration is good, the subject material intersting. I recommend his books as a good relief to the thrillers and crime stories I am usually ordering.

Most Interesting Man?

You will not want to put this book down. A polymath of the best kind, I never thought I would be reading an autobiography of a physicist, but here we are. I recommend this book to everyone. You will leave this book smarter and be entertained the whole way.

Important stories by one of the greatest minds

If you care about science, engineering, technology, and related public policy, this is a great read. Also, an inside look at the history of the Challenger shuttle disaster.

A very interesting book

Every person holds the key to heaven. That same key also unlocks hell
(may be paraphrased a little but the point is stil made)