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Hello and welcome! My name is Emma and I've been a bookseller for over a decade. I also write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps. This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “What If?” by Randall Munroe

Review: “What If?” by Randall Munroe

Image Emma 18 May 2015

Thumbs up for What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. Humor/science.

I love Randall Munroe’s webcomic xkcd so very much. If you are even slightly nerdy and have not read it I am going to gently shoo you in that direction. Okay? We good? Well, his book—which is, exactly as billed, serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions—had me in stitches. I’m not sure which section was my favorite: possibly the “Periodic Wall of the Elements” (examining what would happen if you tried to build a wall in the form of the periodic table with each block actually made from its element). Spoiler: you would destroy a large chunk of the world. Bigger spoiler: the world gets destroyed a lot in this book. You need this for your coffee table. If you don’t have a coffee table, just place the book gently in the center of your floor.

There’s no material safety data sheet for astatine. If there were, it would just be the word “NO” scrawled over and over in charred blood.


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Posted in book review
Tagged humor, science/nature, thumbs up
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My bookstore is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, so we will earn a commission if you click through my links and make a purchase. I, personally, am also an affiliate of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and will likewise make a commission if you click through those links and make a purchase. Having to use Amazon doesn’t fill me with joy, but they’re the only good affiliate program for used books available right now. So…that’s the way it is.

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