What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe 3 stars

[Rachel N.]

Munroe answers hypothetical scientific questions on his website xkcd.com and this book is a compilation of answers to questions submitted to the website. The book was interesting but in some cases there is a lot of complicated mathematics that went over my head. I recommend reading the book in smaller chunks. I liked the less physics oriented questions such as "if you built a real periodic table of the elements what would happen?" and "which state is the most flown over?" I never heard of this website before but now I'm following it to see what the answer to each weeks question is.

[Jgrace]

I tried to listen to this one. I decided that it would be entertaining to hear one a week, but I couldn't take the absurdity en masse !

[Rachel N.]

Jgrace wrote: "I tried to listen to this one. I decided that it would be entertaining to hear one a week, but I couldn't take the absurdity en masse !"

I'm not sure that I would chose to listen to it. There are a lot of cartoon drawings throughout the text and the drawings added some much needed humor to the book.

[Karin]

I think print is better for this one for sure, but it wasn't fabulous. Still, some of it was very funny. Short chunks of reading is the best way to go.