xkcd – a book talk
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Randall Monroe sends us down rabbit holes proving impossible things, or maybe just the questions we thought too ridiculous to ask. He used to be a robotics engineer at NASA, which he has some pretty funny stories about. Later, while doing research, he kept getting questions about random and kind of silly things that he honestly felt he was and wanted to spend more time on. He began collecting these questions and answers and making a webcomic of them. Welcome to, in my opinion, the most addictive webcomic ever: xkcd.com. Ask Randall Monroe a random question about how something works, and he will explain it with humor and little stick people.
The cover of his latest of four books, for instance, provides us with what might happen if a T-rex were alive during a time when airbuses exist and happened to jump on top of one mid-flight. He figured out the engineering and dynamics of it and then had a lengthy conversation with Col. Chris Hadfield astronaut, engineer, and fighter pilot (and musician – he has some great youtube videos on the ISS) about how the pilot would keep the plane in the air until landing.
We are fans in our house. The Easter Bunny brought Monroe’s books How To and What If a couple of years ago and Thing Explainer quickly followed. We all follow his webcomic and enjoy sharing the odd things we get to learn from all these sources. We were pretty excited about this newest book coming out (no, we are not getting paid by Randall Monroe, it may seem like it… – we are just really big fans.)
I happened to see on his social media that he was going to be in Iowa City. I completely missed that it was Book Festival time. Jeff and I talked it over. We have been trying to make sure to do experiences for gifts instead of piling on more things we don’t need – this experience seemed like a no-brainer, especially when we later discovered we were getting the new book, What If 2 thrown in with the deal.
We surprised the boys, picking them up after school and grabbing food for the road. They knew we were doing something and of course, their expectations were – this is going to be lame. We got on the road and told them what we were actually doing, and we got a “Let’s go!” – which is the highest praise level you can get in case you don’t speak 10 and 14-year-old boy. We were pretty happy.
We arrived early, the event was at a Methodist church we entered through a back door and wended our way through the passages. But we caught a glimpse of the man himself tucked back in a room signing books, and found ourselves a front-row seat. We hung out, perusing our books and chatting.
Randall Monroe presented his book talk with Cornelia Lang, the Dean for Undergraduate Education and Professor for Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa. I think the boys were just as interested in Dr. Lang’s work as they were in Monroe’s stories. She is a fascinating person, studying magnetic material on the very edge of black holes. Ben is now interested in touring the U of I campus for undergrad and keeping his options open.
We could have listened to their conversation for hours. We were enthralled by the funny mishaps and details of each of their work. I am a deeply curious person and especially when it comes to the sciences and space exploration. Jeff has a natural understanding of how things work and a familial background for general tinkering, building, and fixing things. Ben wants to be an astrophysicist so we all have taken an interest in his interest. Sam has a flair for engineering and design and he too is curious about a great many things so this falls within his wheelhouse as well.
The talk, however, had to end. We were ushered out by row – as if we really were attending church, and stood in line for book personalization. I think the boys were nervous, they didn’t say much. Randall Munroe did comment that Ben’s age, 8th graders, in particular, asked some of the most alarming questions and we should check out the one about ammonia one asked.
We drove home talking about physics, engineering, books, and college. It was a good night.
Some of Sam’s baseball friends recently found out he was reading these books and stole them from their dad to read. I don’t think they knew they were any good for kids until Sam started raving about them. I love getting to share a good find with friends. I hope this one finds you well.
Book Festival is still going on this week in Iowa City if you are able to attend – I gave feedback for more virtual events in the future for those of us farther away.
