As a Feynman completist, I felt compelled to pick up this latest addition to the canon of one of science's greatest expositors, which is made up largely of excised review lectures from the course that generated some of the most highly regarded physics books ever printed (The Feynman Lectures on Physics including Feynman's Tips on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition).



Whereas those lectures are voyages of discovery that make the reader feel that he is a true participant in the enterprise of science, those contained in this volume are generally more straightforward, and the reader is again but a lowly student ... albeit of one of the subject's greatest teachers. But part of that switch in mood is part of this book's appeal, for even as the reader trades the laboratory for the classroom in some of the more mundane aspects of problem solving, Feynman does so along with him. In fact, Feynman's admissions of the variety of mistakes he made while working out problems (some of which he admits to having to do several times in order to get them right while preparing for the lecture) made for some of the most entertaining and encouraging parts of the book. Feynman, one of the 20th century's greatest physicists, is grinding it out along with us, revealing himself to be vulnerable to the same little pitfalls that can haunt and discourage students in any hard science.



Beyond that, there are some true practical gems in the book, including a wonderfully simple method of differentiation that I had not seen presented Feynman's way until I read this book. Rounding out the lectures are some problems and solutions (not presented by Feynman) that solidify the book's practical aim. None of it is absolutely essential, and the book is arguably a bit pricey for its length. But it is certainly a worthwhile read, further enhanced, perhaps, by imagining Feynman's Far Rockaway accent as you read to make the experience of being his student seem a little more real.