What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (GR Choice Awards Buddy Read) - May 2015

[Kristie, Moderator]

Our winning Nonfiction Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee for our buddy read in May is What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.



Book summary
Randall Munroe left NASA in 2005 to start up his hugely popular site XKCD 'a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language' which offers a witty take on the world of science and geeks. It's had over a billion page hits to date. A year ago Munroe set up a new section - What If - where he tackles a series of impossible questions: If your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how long would you survive? How dangerous is it, really, in a pool in a thunderstorm? If we hooked turbines to people exercising in gyms, how much power could we produce? What if everyone only had one soulmate? From what height would you need to drop a steak to ensure it was cooked by the time it reached the ground? What would happen if the moon went away? This book gathers together the best entries along with lots of new gems. From The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and the songs of Tim Minchin, through chemistry, geography and physics, Munroe leaves no stone unturned in his quest for knowledge. And his answers are witty and memorable and studded with hilarious cartoons and infographics. Far more than a book for geeks, WHAT IF explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel the smarter for having read.

[Alissa]

listening to the audio of What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. It's narrated by Wil Wheaton!

[Valerie]

I thought this was a lot of fun. I, too, enjoyed the Will Wheaton narration. If I am going to nerdy, I want to go all the way, right?

I have to admit that Mr. Munroe loves his science. At times, he got a little too sciencey and I found myself replaying to try to grasp the concept.

I loved that he took these crazy questions and answered them scientifically, but totally from the perspective of a dude. Often he'd answer the question, but like all guys, let's take it even further!!!! Sprinkle in plenty of geek pop culture references and you it is a nerdy good time.

[Matthew]

For me - I actually enjoyed the less sciencey entries (for example - the fly over states) more. I am a trivia buff, so those appealed to me. The just kind of got lost in some of his science - which I would say is not necessarily bad, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Janina]

I had a great time reading this (a while ago). I'm more of a science geek myself, so I really appreciated most of the topics. Lots of fun (should have made the humor category this year)! I rarely laugh while reading (given the notorious science geekiness), but this had me chuckling quite a bit.