xkcd: volume 0 by Randall Munroe

For the uninitiated, xkcd is "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" that quirky, smart, occasionally touching and quite popular.  The drawings are usually stick people or larger graphs/images that explore the main themes. This book is a collection of the comic and it was very enjoyable. I appreciate the comic because I generally get all the romance, sarcasm, language and some of the math. The problem is that 'math' might be more accurately replaced by 'computer science/programming.' This problem was amplified by the collected works which have many extra goodies in them, but a large chunk are computer programming references/eggs that I just don't have the background for. That said, the commentary on each strip was a nice touch and fun to read.

My second main criticism is that it was too short! Come on, man! We know the stuff is available free on the web and your intro sounds like you don't need tons of revenue from putting out several smaller books, so why not make it thicker?

I would say buy this if you are a big fan but if you're unsure or more frugal, just read the original strips on the website

Something related to the book but not usually part of a review was the publisher. As it said on the inside pages: "The book is published by BreadPig, a company founded by my friend Alexis, and their portion of the profits will go to build a school in Laos through the charity Room to Read."

Well, isn't that great?