REVIEW: How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems (nonfiction book) by Randall Munroe

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems is a blend of science/math and humor. I bought my copy new.

Review:

How To is very similar to Munroe's What If? volumes, in that it examines hypothetical scenarios and attempts to determine, scientifically, if they are possible and what some of the unintended outcomes might be. In this case, however, the hypothetical scenarios are all addressing common real-world problems, like making friends, digging a hole, playing football, etc., although they're all taken to extremes in some way. And okay, so there are a few less common problems thrown in, like how to build a lava moat and how to mail a package from space.

I found this to be just as entertaining and fascinating as Munroe's What If? volumes. I enjoy seeing how he thinks his way through the various problems. His stick figure illustrations add to the humor. This time around there were some fun guest contributions too. I got a kick out of the thought of Serena Williams agreeing to see how many tries it would take her to knock a drone out of the sky with a tennis ball. Dr. Katie Mack's "vacuum decay no, tiny black hole yes" answer was also fun. Astronaut Chris Hadfield essentially got a whole chapter to himself, tackling every emergency landing situation Munroe could throw at him (granted, some of the answers generally boiled down to "you'll almost certainly die, but doing [blank] would help improve your chances of survival very slightly").

REVIEW: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (nonfiction book) by Randall Munroe

What If? is humorous nonfiction. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

It's starting to look like Randall Munroe is my go-to author when I'm sick. Many of the What If? scenarios scratch something like a humorous sci-fi itch for me, but without the expectation that I keep track of groups of characters and whatever's going on with them in particular.

My absolute favorite chapter in this volume is "Periodic Wall of Elements," in which Munroe lays out what would happen if someone, somehow, built a periodic table out of bricks, where each brick was made of its corresponding element. However, as with What If? 2, I generally enjoyed any chapter that involved lots of destruction.

I don't really have much to say beyond that. This was technically a reread, but my first time through was in audiobook form. While I recall Wil Wheaton being an enjoyable narrator, the illustrations alone make this better to read in print. 

Oh, one thing I'll add: the chapter "Common Cold" ("If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple weeks, wouldn't the common cold be wiped out?") felt really weird to read after the past few pandemic years and the period of sorta kinda lockdowns (in the U.S., at least).

I have a copy of Munroe's How To waiting on my TBR for the next time I get sick. Hopefully it'll get to sit there until at least 2024.

REVIEW: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (nonfiction book) by Randall Munroe

What If? 2 is a blend of science/math and humor. I bought my copy new.

Review:

If you liked the first What If? volume, you'll probably enjoy this one. Randall Munroe once again tackles a variety of questions in as scientific a way as possible. This occasionally (often?) means he has to make some assumptions so that the questions are answerable, and his assumptions might not always gel with what the person who asked the question intended. But hey, it's entertaining.

Some of the questions were more math problems than "what if?" scientific thought experiments - for example, the one about how many pages a person would have to read in order to read all of the laws that apply to them, or the one asking at what point in history there were too many English-language books to read in one lifetime. My favorite questions were the true "what ifs," the ones that involved fundamental changes to the world, the universe, or time itself. The more horrifically destructive the results, the better. (Bring on the candy rain and neverending dogs!)

I started reading this while I was sick, assuming that the explanations would help me drift off to sleep. Instead, I found this book to be entertaining in a way that was absolutely perfect for my exhausted and congested self. Many of the chapters told little stories about worlds or universes in which something had gone horribly awry, which was great fun to read about. At the same time, Munroe wasn't asking me to keep track of characters or plots, everything came with amusing pictures, and each chapter was relatively short. I could easily read a chapter or two and then decide it was time to nap for a few hours. True, I couldn't always follow the science, but I can't guarantee that I'd have been able to follow it even if I'd been healthy.

If I remember right, I listened to the audio version of the first What If? book. I recall enjoying it, but, what with the illustrations, it'd probably have been better to read it than listen to it. My enjoyment of this volume is making me consider going back and reading a paper copy of the first book.