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. A “What If” question for Volume II: How many pre-orders would it take to crash Amazon, and what ripple effect(s) would this have on the rest of the world? That being said, I am going through my local indie bookseller, Prairie Lights of Iowa City. Great idea!

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  3. I look forward to these each week. Thanks for your work, and your humor.

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  4. Book pre ordered on amazon, now just a 6 month wait, what if I coul skip the next six months and wake up in september to recive this book

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  7. Excellent! Hopefully my question doesn’t turn up in the “weirdest” bin…

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  8. Is the UK version any different from the US one?
    It’s certainly easier (faster, cheaper) to have it shipped to Italy, but if that contains any color/colour madness I prefer the US one. 😛

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  11. why would I buy this book if I could just go back to the webcomic to view ALL of them? of course, I would be willing to support you by buying the book, but is there any difference between it and going to the website?

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  12. Awesome! What if is for sure the highlight of the week 🙂

    But as some people already asked, what’s the difference between the UK and US edition. As I live in Norway it would probably be easier to order it from UK if anything.

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  13. Hi!
    What if, you make a Spanish edition?
    I hope you think about it.
    Thank you for your time.
    Greetings.

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  14. Awesome. Will pre-order, but I have to admit I’m really disappointed in with the delivery options. I have much better luck with velociraptors than UPS these days.

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  15. “of course, I would be willing to support you by buying the book, but is there any difference between it and going to the website?”

    You don’t read too well, do you?

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  16. Love your circuitry, but where is the flux capacitor? And I see you’re still keeping your infamous fueless generator secret. Write that book! Send me a copy! We are the champions!

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  18. Does the UK & Commonwealth version mean that it uses metric entirely and removes confusing references to miles? Or is it just spelling differences?

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  21. I’m french, and even if I’m comfortable with English, a french version would be lovely….

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  27. Awesome. I’ve submitted What-If once or twice, but you never used them. Now I know you’re making a *book* of out them, I sincerely hope one of my question makes it there (and confuses everybody as to why anybody would ask such a question, but hopes are low for that).

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  28. Oh, please tell me there would be an e-book version!
    I live in Argentina and cannot buy books from abroad!

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  30. UPS, FedEx: eat it. I want my stuff delivered at high velocity, by a velociraptor, on a river of lava.

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  31. Thank you, thank you, thank you! The raptors will be pleased, and the rivers will continue flowing, just because you are publishing again!

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  34. E-book, pretty please?!? I promise I’ll pre-order it immediately!

    It’s been years since I’ve bought the dead tree edition of anything.

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  35. +1 for Russian translation! For me, chtoes.li’s translations are great and there are lots of people from Russia, Ukraine etc who read them. If there were Russian version of the book, I’d ordered a couple extra copies as gifts for my friends.

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  36. Oh hey, I see that B&N lists a e-book edition for the Nook! Does this portend a future Kindle or iBookstore or ePub or PDF release as well, or do I have to go install the Nook app now to make good on my promise?

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  37. Amazon in Canada purports to carry the e-book version but not the dead-tree version, while every other place claims to carry the dead-tree version but not the e-book version. Rather odd.

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  38. This book is now #1 on the amazon uk popular science list, #2 in Science and Nature, and #3 in all books. That is astonishing.

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  42. How will the image title text rollovers work in the print edition?
    Will there be red spiders?

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  45. This is great news! Which of the available sites should I order from to ensure that Randall gets the highest percentage of my money?

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  46. I can buy the book on Amazon, but only hardcover? I have Kindle and I’m willing to buy, but not hardcover (I’m not from US nor any Amazon-enabled country), so I would have to pay (a lot) for delivery.

    Have you considered publishing the book in electronic form?

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  48. question: will the book have pop-up tabs so I can read the alt-text on images analogue?

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  49. I just preordered the German version. Thanks for doing what you do, and doing it so great!

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