Reviews

What If There Was This Brilliant Book

By Randall Munroe

Written By Kai, Scotland

What If there was an extremely intelligent pun snuck into the title of this book review? Well, my dear reader, you would be correct in thinking that there is. The book recommendation I will be making in this article is for ‘What If’, by Randall Munroe.

Allow me to give you one of the chapter titles in this fantastic book - ‘From what height would you drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hits the ground?’. Now, I know what you’re thinking, I’m playing with high steaks and have recommended a cookbook. Thankfully, I’m not that bananas. This is a book about ‘serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions’, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. From ‘What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off?’, to, ‘Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?’, this book has an answer to many hilarious scenarios, with witty answers and amazing cartoons (stick figures). There is also a chapter regarding the periodic table destroying the world. I was going to make a chemistry joke, but… Na, I wouldn’t get a reaction.

Why should you trust Mr. Munroe? In his past, Randall Munroe worked at NASA building robots, that is, until he dropped out to draw cartoons on the Internet. I’d say that he’s pretty qualified. There are also some interesting questions that Mr Munroe (intelligently) decided not to answer. These can be found in the ‘Weird and Worrying Section’. For example, ‘If humans had wheels and could fly, how would we differentiate them from aeroplanes?’. I may be no genius, but I think that it’s pretty plane to see what that answer may be. Thank you for making it thus far (and through my terrible puns). Don’t forget to read this book!