Richard Feynman. A Life in Science, John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin (ISBN 978-1-78578-372-2, Iconbooks)

During my physics studies at university I became a fan of Feynman. His path integral formulation of quantum mechanics was a revelation after years of plodding through the standard formalisms by Heisenberg and Schrödinger and the mists surrounding the question what it all meant physically. Especially the fact that this approach was also applicable to classical physics was, I say it again, a revelation. But I didn’t know much about Feynman as a human being. That changed when I read the biography from James Gleick. in the middle of the nineties. That biography is lengthier and more detailed in the biographical aspects than the book by John Gribbin. As a result I didn’t learn much new about the life of Feynman. But this book focuses more on Feynman’s work and how it has influenced research in various fields of physics up to this day. This puts a different perspective on the work of Feynman compared to that in James Gleick’s book. I certainly enjoyed reading this book, I finished it within a week. I would recommend reading both books, the one from Gleick first, followed by this one. But maybe this is only recommended for aficionados or people with a lot of time on their hands or both.