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[KingofstarrySkies]

But
but thanksgiving is dumb and D:

[Tawa]

New XKCD book!

[the1337doofus]

New XKCD book!

This looks frickin' AWEOMSE!

[Flying Dice]

Oi, take this cakeday and like it! 

Why do so many people have birthdays in April and May? Is August/July just mating season for humans?

-snip-
I'm sorry.

Huh. That's actually... highly probable.

[Arcvasti]

New XKCD book!

This looks frickin' AWEOMSE!

Oh god yes. Up goer five was the best. At least, it WAS the best. Now its got competition.

[Tawa]

New XKCD book!

This looks frickin' AWEOMSE!

Oh god yes. Up goer five was the best. At least, it WAS the best. Now its got competition.

I wonder how DF would be described using only the ten hundred words used most often.

[Eric Blank]

Don't bother, Randall already has spies in our midst.

[KingofstarrySkies]

Oi! Make a new one of the Map Of The Internet things! Or was it social media? ANYWAY, DO THAT

[SealyStar]

Randall's recent interest in book deals suggests that the money from t-shirts with le witty xkcd quotes must be drying up.

[Descan]

Spoiler: Not Happy Thread. Sorry Sealy (click to show/hide)

I always have a hatred for sarcasm along those lines. It's bitter, annoying, petulant, and smug, all in one.

[SealyStar]

Spoiler: Not Happy Thread. Sorry Sealy (click to show/hide)

I always have a hatred for sarcasm along those lines. It's bitter, annoying, petulant, and smug, all in one.

In all seriousness, I'm not really mad - I enjoyed the What If? book and I'll probably get this one at some point. I'm just a bit irritated about the ongoing three-month freeze in What If? updates and I suspect it has something to do with this new book.

EDIT: I should clarify what I meant because I agree that it comes across as whiny and entitled. Seeing as Randall has previously made a living off xkcd from merchandise sales like posters and t-shirts, which don't require any work outside of what he already does for the (free) comic and What If?, I find it odd that he would suddenly switch to methods of "monetizing" (*shudder*) that require him to put in more work, unless the old ones aren't working any more.

[Putnam]

maybe he wanted to write a book

[Gentlefish]

He could be taking one what-if? seriously and performing a three-month-long experiment.

[i2amroy]

I honestly get a lot more of the "this was a really fun idea when I did it, and wanted to do more of it" feeling off of both of the books than "this is something I'm doing to make money because I need income". I own the What-if book, and I can therefore certainly say that there are a number of questions that wouldn't have been able to be answered in the size of a normal what-if post, yet were still very fun questions to learn the answers to (and were probably fun to research as well). And that's pretty much what Randal said when he released the What-if book; that he had some fun questions he wanted to go more in-depth with and he needed more space to do it in.

Similarly I get the same feeling with this project. Trying to describe things using only words from "the list" sounds a lot more like something you would do as a party game instead of as a serious project, yet he's making it into a book so we can enjoy and laugh at his efforts along with him. Yeah, there might be some brief halting of other things (like the What-if stuff) but honestly I can see enjoying a change of pace from what you've been doing for the past year or so, and it's his decision to chose what to spend his time on in the end.

[Aqizzar]

EDIT: I should clarify what I meant because I agree that it comes across as whiny and entitled. Seeing as Randall has previously made a living off xkcd from merchandise sales like posters and t-shirts, which don't require any work outside of what he already does for the (free) comic and What If?, I find it odd that he would suddenly switch to methods of "monetizing" (*shudder*) that require him to put in more work, unless the old ones aren't working any more.

Considering the What If book massively increased his already constantly growing fanbase, I think it's just he really wanted to do it.  The Up Goer Five concept was one of the most widely circulated gags he ever made.  After the smashing success of the What If book, he probably thought, "what else do I want to make a book with?"