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3.77k reviews for:
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
4.14 AVERAGE
3.77k reviews for:
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
4.14 AVERAGE
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
I've reviewed this book before, after I read it in less than 24 hours about a month before I got it as a Christmas gift last year (2014). While waiting on a book to come into the library I went ahead and listened to the audiobook version this time.
I don't have anything to add to my review really, other than my surprise at how well it held up despite lacking cartoon images and the jokes within. There really wasn't anything added by listening to this book, rather than reading it, in fact because of the loss of some jokes and it pictures it probably takes away from it. None-the-less, it was an entertaining and re-informative read. Also, this is the second book I have listened to with [a:Wil Wheaton|37075|Wil Wheaton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg] as the narrator and he is good at it. Will is very much my kind of nerd.
I don't have anything to add to my review really, other than my surprise at how well it held up despite lacking cartoon images and the jokes within. There really wasn't anything added by listening to this book, rather than reading it, in fact because of the loss of some jokes and it pictures it probably takes away from it. None-the-less, it was an entertaining and re-informative read. Also, this is the second book I have listened to with [a:Wil Wheaton|37075|Wil Wheaton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg] as the narrator and he is good at it. Will is very much my kind of nerd.
As soon as How To came out my daughters and I began listening to it together. I've been a Randall Munroe fan for a while, well before any of his books came out, but my daughters didn't get introduced until that book. They liked it so much that we immediately moved into listening to this one together. It is my 3rd or 4th time through it and I was reminded of little things I had forgotten and still found it thoroughly enjoyable.
Pretty fun book. The title pretty much says it all. Loved the comedy of the writing yet the grounded science and math was enlightening and educational (I think).
Cool book but my brain feels like it is overflowing with so much stuff that I won't be able to recall it properly. I'd read the sequel one day.
Cool book but my brain feels like it is overflowing with so much stuff that I won't be able to recall it properly. I'd read the sequel one day.
Completely ridiculous but absurdly smart and fun. Recommended for geeks everywhere.
What if there were a book that gave serious scientific answers to the kinds of loony questions kids ask, like what if you were a pilot and you had to land your plane but you got locked out of the cockpit, or what if you got locked out of the plane? What if the book had awesome illustrations? What if it was just completely amazing in every way?
I really enjoyed the author's humorous exploration of scientific questions. These are exactly the type of questions my kids managed to come up with in their younger days, and I was never intrepid enough to research the answers. I gave the book to my son (now 12) for Christmas, and he's enjoying it even more than I did.
A wonderful geeky book and the audio version is narrated by Wil Wheaton, what more could you ask for!
As someone who Googles at least five random and curious questions per week, I loved this book. It was weird and hysterical and absolutely entertaining, and maybe I even learned a thing or two. I’m now very tempted to do (or rather attempt) the math to figure out Anakin’s power output when he pulled the ship out of the sky in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show because it had to have blown Yoda’s raising the X-wing out of the water (pun intended).
IF you are a science nerd then this is the book for you. While I found all the questions to be somewhat informative and interesting, I often found myself needing a tutor to help me understand some of the forms of measurement the author used in his examples. To those who are terrified about everything and imagine thousands of ways the human race can go extinct, this book will put your mind at ease when looking at different scenarios. I learned a lot but if I were to explain myself to my chemist, bio-engineers and physics friends I would have a "uh, hmmm, and stuff" used in describing what I had just learned. I thought I was a numbers person but this book takes numbers to an infinite realm.
The author makes the book very pleasurable to read and answers the questions in the most simplistic form he knows how.
The author makes the book very pleasurable to read and answers the questions in the most simplistic form he knows how.