It's excellent
Bought it on Kindle, read it already. It's excellent. Couldn't put it down.
Read an extract of the book that's hit the top of the New York Times and the Sunday Times bestseller lists this weekend - What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by XKCD's Randall Munroe. The science-inspiring missive was reviewed by El Reg here, now read Munroe's answer to the question of how much …
It is excellent - and I have a hardback on order, just as I have the paperback of the cartoons.
But exactly what is the point of an electronic version of a set of blog posts that are already online?
Other than Randall's tip jar - why collect a bunch of bits that are freely available online, zip them and charge $15?
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I'm loving my Kindle copy. I thought of El Reg when I read his spirited defence of non-SI measurement units, someone should email him the list of this august site's own system. I also bought the audio upgrade for the added fun of hearing Wil Wheaton reading the book. All in all, a very "splendid and worthwhile" e-book, to make an HHGTTG reference, obligatory when talking ebooks, science and humour.
Really? Is it that hard to link to what-if.xkcd.com??
And FYI, for the idiots that bought an electronic edition of a website, the hardback copy has a few interesting design easter eggs. (not that I really care, the money goes to Randall either way, I just hate seeing Amazon or B&N get a large chunk.)
There's one Unicode typo I did notice...
Operates outside physics.
Yoda merely moved the universe slightly so the appearance of a 'spaceship' in a 'swamp' was replaced by the appearance of a 'spaceship' 'not in a swamp'
Cf Shrödingers cat, Infinite improbability drive, et al. The Force operates to select a collapse of the quantum probability wave into the desired illusion of classical reality.
Let's face it, without infinite improbability, how can you hear those spaceships blowing up in a vacuum? Or get a decent sort of Harrison Ford hunk to fall for a cockteasing lardslab like Leia?