BOOK REVIEW: WHAT IF?
Book title: What if?
Author of book: Randall Munroe
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date of publication: 2 September 2014
Price: INR 499 / GBP 8.99
ISBN: 978-1-8485-4956-2
No. of pages: 304
What if? is a book which gives serious, scientific answers to ridiculous, absurd and hypothetical questions such as, “What if my DNA vanished?” or “What is you tried to fly a plane on every celestial body in the solar system?”.
It is, however, atypical of other similar books because of the way these answers are presented, in a very informal and humorous style, illustrated every now and then with the stick figures of the popular web-comic, xkcd (of which the author of the book happens to be the creator).
Along with the many jokes in it, though, are some real pearls of information that won’t be found in many other books, such as the possible fastest man-made object ever (the answer is surprising!).
Also in it is a ‘weird and worrying questions’ section which displays questions too weird (even for the book) or worrying to be answered. Each of these questions is answered with a humorously drawn stick-figure illustration, which I found hilarious.
I think the book is fascinating and would definitely recommend it to pretty much anyone interested in the mysteries of the world we live in. I also find it to be a great source of information, however weird that information may be.
Author of review: Hans S. Kumar
Class and section: VIII ‘B’
Admission No.: 6911
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