What if I wrote a book?

Posted bydavean 1,117 Comments on What if I wrote a book?

For the last couple years, I’ve been answering your science questions on What If.

Today, I’m excited to announce that the What If? book is coming!

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions will be published September 2nd by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Starting today you can pre-order it from your favorite bookseller (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Bound).  There are also foreign editions, including a UK and Commonwealth edition and a German edition.

As I’ve sifted through the letters submitted to What If every week, I’ve occasionally set aside particularly neat questions that I wanted to spend a little more time on. This book features my answers to those questions, along with revised and updated versions of some of my favorite articles from the site. (I’m also including my personal list of the weirdest questions people have submitted.)

Preorder today to get a copy as soon as it comes out!

1,117 replies on “What if I wrote a book?”

  1. For each ebook copy ordered, I will print out this comments page. And I don’t recycle.

    Contrarians forever!

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  4. And, to add to the chorus, while some of continue to use paper books as markers of identity and fetishise the physical objects that carry them, we may also live in countries that result in crazy shipping costs and would therefore appreciate the ebook too 🙂

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  6. How many Amazon reviews will say “instead of book received bobcat. Will not order again”?

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  7. >>Does the book come with a wolverine?
    More importantly, does the book come with a velociraptor?

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  8. Fantastic! If you do manage to do that antimatter edition, does it come with dilithium reading glasses?

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  9. Seriously, I’m up for an eBook.

    instead of eBook received bobcat. Will not order again

    Cheers aye

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  12. I must say that if the box the book comes in instead disgorges a bobcat, I will be writing a very strongly worded negative review.

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  13. Will the US version be available for european customers on mainland europe (Netherlands specifically in my case?)
    It doesn’t seem B&N or Amazon does international shipping at even remotely reasonable cost.

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  19. @baka0815.de

    That is true, however you missed out the €3.75 shipping charge from Germany to the UK. That takes it to about £17.55. Almost exactly the same as the UK price.

    Oh, and I see that Amazon.de have the paperback listed.

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  22. Slightly annoyed by the amazon prices $1 != £1

    That aside is there and difference in content between the UK and US versions?

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  23. Any chance of being able to pre-order through Amazon.ca or alternative Canadian option?

    Thanks

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  24. @baka0815.de
    @Dave MacRae

    The book price seems to be chaotic in Europe, here what it looks like from France:

    ~18€ ($25) on amazon.com: $17(12€) + international delivery of about $8
    ~20€ on Amazon.de: 17€ (+40%) + delivery ~3€
    ~25€ on Amazon.fr : 25€ (+108%) + free delivery

    So the cheapest option is to buy it on Amazon.com, the most interesting one (cost+delivery time) is Amazon.de

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  26. $16.97 on amazon.com equals to £17.53 on amazon.co.uk ?
    come on, that is just wrong…

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  27. I’m torn … do I want to join the choir asking for an e-book version – or do I want to fetish-ise it and use it as a marker of identity?!

    It will join Unsounded, Oglaf and Watchmen for my collection of (physical) intelligent person’s webcomic paraphernalia. Watchmen being a non-webcomic, but I take the stance that this is only the case because the web wasn’t around yet when it was published.

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  30. Are there any instances of the preposition “of” missing after the word “couple” in the UK version of the book?

    It is pretty jarring for non US English speakers.

    Oh, and we prefer “and” in between orders of magnitudes in numbers.

    Thanks 🙂

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  31. The majority of younger people, 16-24, supposedly prefer print to electronic copies of books. Although I am skeptical of the statistics, yielded by a quick and fairly biased google search, I can not deny that this sentiment is reflected in me. There is something reassuring about a physical book. Do not get me wrong, there are many pros to ebooks, some of those readers are pretty nice too, and I might acquire the ebook if it becomes available. But the story in a book is never so real as when it is tangible.

    I shall stop here, as I have wasted enough company time on this rant.

    P.S. Hardcover is even better than paper.

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  33. >> $16.97 + 20% VAT is about £17.53, yes.

    There is no VAT on printed books.

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  35. Can I assume that the antimatter e-book will eventually be available for my p+reader? Otherwise, why did I buy the thing…

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  36. Can I get a version that is sung to me to the tune of Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” by Gregorian monks? Also, can that version have a bobcat?

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  38. I’d love an eBook version as well. I haven’t read a paper book front to back in probably over a decade, but I devour eBooks. I think it’s cool if people want a physical copy, but if there’s no electronic version, it’s a definite non-sale for me.

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  40. I’d write the greatest review ever (weighted by number of exclamation points) if the e-version comes *with* an e-bobcat!!

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  41. Pingback: Houghton Mifflin to publish Randall Munroe's 'What If?' | Robot 6 @ Comic Book ResourcesRobot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

  42. While I intend to buy the dead tree version (as it would make a great bathroom reader), I, too, would love an e-book version, since I just don’t carry paper books around anymore.

    (No bobcats, please)

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  49. Don’t understand why so many people came here to comment – I saw this post in my RSS reader and went to Amazon.com immediately! Their site didn’t go down …

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