Randall Munroe

I love this series. Munroe does his homework and puts together some impressive answers to seemingly unanswerable questions. I like too how he tailors his writing slightly depending on who asked the question; kids asking the questions get answers that are written a bit more simply but not in a talking-down way. And as always, the cartoons are laugh-out-loud funny. In this edition I particularly liked the “Weird and worrying” sections, where he would simply present questions without show more comment because they were just too weird to answer, but had to be shared. This is a great book to read a bit at a time, and occasionally out loud to the people around you whether they want to hear it or not. show less

Ask a silly question -- especially a silly, hypothetical, science-based question -- and if you're lucky, the answer will be as informative and funny as the ones in this book. The title is a bit misleading, as Munroe's responses aren't just serious (though he does consult experts and use explanations that sometimes are a little beyond me technically). Instead he draws upon a lot of geeky snark, both in his text and his accompanying stick drawings (I just love his depiction of Yoda powering a show more SmartCar), and takes particular glee in imagining the details of various catastrophes. Recommended for anyone with a sense of humor who doesn't mind learning a bit in the process. show less

An extended exercise in solemn engineering-style whimsy, complete with footnotes and cartoons, by one of my favorite cartoonists. Procedure: Think of an ordinary task, such as how to charge your phone, and without even considering any of the usual everyday solutions, delineate the most workable but absurd possible answers. The astronaut Chris Hadfield was enlisted at one point, and later the tennis champion Serena Williams (to see how efficiently a tennis serve could disable a drone). At show more times the book was a bit of a slog but it was genuinely worth the read if only for the trivia I learned along the way.

The last chapter was “How to Dispose of This Book.” But I read it on Kindle, so the various improbably solutions did not apply. show less

hilarious! delightful! i love it and i love you, randall monroe!! the reverse-engineering of things like "bags of death water" and "part after eight" the book makes you do is only part of the joy of seeing things you understand or don't understand explained in brilliantly imaginative new ways, accompanied by trademark xkcd-style comics (though i wish there were more!) and anecdotal jokes.