Book-a-book of the Month Club discussion

Did any of the What If? scenarios stand out to you, hold special interest for you, or blow your mind?

Did you find any of them too silly or stupid - even for a somewhat outlandish book?

Any other thoughts?

So - the everyone jumping up and down quickly got away from the science of the situation and into a bizarre but amusing hypothetical about what would happen if the earths entire population was in Rhode Island - an interesting scenario in itself!

In stead of just a mole of moles, it quickly became - what if there was a planet made out of moles? Pretty funny and strange! Meat planet!

I read the machine gun one today . . . didn't really get it . . .

haha I found the short answer one about the c4 on a boomerang funny. Short and sweet haha

I think so far - I like the short answer ones better!

yeah the others do seem to drag a bit sometimes

I liked the fly over state "What If?" - not sure why, but that is the sort of trivia I enjoy. The "Making a baby with yourself" one was weird and hard to follow.

I did start to roll my eyes a little when he would just start amping up the variables to see what would happen in the end. Usually a giant explosion that consumed the planet.

I also thought it was weird that he started out the book with the baseball "What If". He imagined that a giant nuclear bomb type explosion would happen. Then in the footnotes he said that some other physicist emailed him and said that none of that would happen. Instead, the ball would disintegrate on the air molecules before it reached the bat. That made it my least favorite one. I've still got some more reading to do. Trying to decide which was my favorite.

The quick Q&A with the guy crying to dehydration made me laugh out loud on the train, kind of dark.

I found this book entertaining. It appeals to me as a scientist and an eejit. My definite favourite was the periodic table, had me laughing out loud. There were a few duds in there but I didn't expect it to be all gold. Some of the funniest moments for me were the "Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox". Proof, if we needed it, that there are some pretty weird people out there.

I was definitely entertained by the "Weird and Worrying". They could have been a book by themselves!