We continue to share our impressions of the books we read. This time we will talk about the unusual edition of the authorship of the American cartoonist, engineer and theoretical scientist Randel Munro “What if? Serious answers to absurd questions.” This book is not a classic pop science, but a humorously illustrated selection of very strange and unusual questions, which the author answers from a scientific point of view.
“What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd”/What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd
Author Randall Munroe
Publishing house Vivat
Pages 320
Year 2018
Cover Integral
Language Ukrainian
Format 64×86/16 (160×210 mm)
Site vivat-book.com.ua
Randall Munroe became famous for his internet comic xkcd. As the author himself writes, these are cool sketches of the “stick-stick-cucumber” type. Next appeared the blog What If? for questions and answers to the most ridiculous, and therefore the most interesting, questions. On it, Munro gave answers from a scientific point of view and embellished the explanations with his trademark drawings.
The book “And what, when? Serious answers to absurd questions” appeared later and became something like a collection of interesting and witty things that appeared on the site.
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As we can see, “What if?” not classic non-fiction or pop science, but a large collection of silly, witty, stupid, but always interesting questions about something. I will give a few examples that I remember the most: What if the Earth and everything on it suddenly stopped rotating, and the atmosphere did not lose its speed?; And what if the downpour is one big drop?; And what if there was a printed version of the entire Wikipedia, how many printers would it take to make all the corrections made online?; And when (if ever) will there be more profiles of dead users than living ones on Facebook?; Do we have enough energy to send the entire modern population of Earth into space?
To all these and many questions, the author always gives a witty, but scientifically based answer, explains the little things and important points, and also accompanies all this with his simple but funny drawings.
Before I started reading the book, I thought that I would read such a format for quite a long time and in fragments. Doing a few big approaches or a bunch of small ones. As a matter of fact, it turned out that the book touched me almost immediately and I read it like an artist.
It’s all about the presentation described above and a lot of interesting scientific facts that I learned while explaining all those silly, and sometimes, let’s be frank, scary and stupid questions. It would seem that why know enough energy on Earth to send people into space?
But when explaining, Randall Munro uses his scientific experience as a former NASA employee, exceptional knowledge of history, physics, geography and many incredible facts. He turns all this to the wonderful irony and intellectual humor of the scientist. If you, like me, like to memorize various curiosities and then flaunt them in front of your friends, then this book is just for you.
Because of its bright cover and many sketches, What if? Serious answers to absurd questions” may seem like a great gift for schoolchildren. But it is not so. The book, after all, is more intended for an adult knowledgeable reader. But it can be recommended to teenagers in the last grades of school and students, because it is written in a simple, albeit scientific language.
The book is published by Vivat publishing house. Its cover is integral (something in between hard and soft). The dimensions are larger than a regular book (160×210 mm), but due to the small thickness (320 pages) and weight, the edition is easy to hold in your hands, sit or lie with it while reading.
The paper is quite thick, pleasant to the touch and yellow. There are several fonts in the book. They are of different sizes, but the main one, with which the main part of the text is written, is medium and easy to read. There is no satin bookmark ribbon, and after several books with it, this built-in convenience is no longer enough. There are also many drawings, images and diagrams.
Pros:
a high-quality and convenient edition, written in an accessible, but at the same time intellectually and with knowledge of the matter, pleasant to the touch thick yellow pages, many funny and interesting pictures, the book can be read like an encyclopedia, that is, you can return to it again and again
Cons:
the satin bookmark ribbon is missing, giving the false impression that the book is suitable for children
Conclusion:
“What if? Serious answers to absurd questions” is a great option for a gift to an adult or a knowledgeable high school student. This book is definitely worth having in the home library, because it has a ton of interesting facts and great scientific answers to many stupid and nonsensical questions. Despite its format collections, the book can easily be read as fiction or non-fiction.
