Lin Children's 2011 Winter Vacation Recommended Reading
2012 School Library Journal Recommended Books
2012 Youth Publishing Association Recommended Excellent Books
2013 Bookworm/Morning Reading Recommendations

Richard Farniman, a giant in physics,
Tell your child who loves math and science the story of Feynman.

Reading Feynman's story, you'll find yourself exclaiming, "Wow, there are people who enjoy math and science like this."
I think I understand why Steve Jobs admired him the most, and why the world's leading scholars unanimously said, "Every modern person must know Feynman."
I want to give my children a "cave laboratory" like Feynman's, and let them do whatever they want with their experiments, whether that means starting a fire or breaking a few radios.
Does your child love math? Or does he or she hate it? Are they overwhelmed by the challenges as they progress through the basic, advanced, and competitive stages? First, teach your children why they need to learn math and science and why they enjoy it.
Dr. Feynman, the joke doctor, will draw children into the world of math and science while making them laugh.

Little Dick, the Radio Repairman
Sometimes, just by opening the radio, I could tell where the problem was.
If there are traces of something melting or soot on it, it means it was very hot and burned.
I found myself having more and more fun fixing radios, and the older the radio, the more excited I became.
Little by little, broken radios from the houses next door and across the street came to me, and sometimes I even went to a fancy place to repair them.


The encyclopedia was really interesting.
We had a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica at home.
It is said that his father bought it for a large sum of money despite his limited financial situation.
We enjoyed reading the encyclopedia, and one day we found ourselves reading the section about dinosaurs.
Tyrannosaurus: 6 meters tall, 16 meters long.
My father explained it to me in an easy-to-understand way: "If this dinosaur were in our yard, it would be tall enough to stick its head out the second-floor window."


I learned math at the library.
I learned math at the library.
I met my math teacher there.
My teacher said it was a beautifully bound math book! I read it from elementary school until I was in high school, until it was worn out.
At first, I borrowed [Practical Arithmetic].
After that, I read [Practical Algebra], [Practical Trigonometry]...


Math is 100 points, history is 0 points
I got first place in math, physics, and chemistry, but my grades in Korean and history were not that great.
I really hated Korean.
Why else would a grown high school student make spelling mistakes?
Still, I didn't take it seriously or feel embarrassed.


Changed major at MIT from mathematics to electrical engineering to physics
I changed my major from mathematics to electrical engineering.
What could mathematics do? That was a huge concern back then.
Electrical engineering seemed like a very practical discipline.
But this decision soon changed, and he decided to major in physics, which is more practical than mathematics and less practical than electrical engineering.


No Mensa clubs, no formalities or superficiality.
It was when the Mensa club invited me to join.
It's a famous gifted club that only the top 0.02 percent of humanity, with an IQ of 148 or higher, can join.
"I'm sorry.
"My IQ isn't as high as yours, so I can't join! My IQ is only 124!" he said, refusing.


Participating in the atomic bomb test and the Manhattan Project
I saw that damn thing with my own eyes! I'm probably the only person on Earth who ever saw an atomic bomb explode with their own eyes.
So, we really did make an atomic bomb.


Is there any way to avoid receiving the Nobel Prize?
When a Time magazine reporter called and asked me how I felt about winning the Nobel Prize, I said, "How could I not win the Nobel Prize?"
Then the reporter advised me that if I declined the Nobel Prize, it would create a bigger fuss than if I accepted it, and only then did I board the plane to Sweden.

--- From the text