Et al.: Because not all research deserves a Nobel Prize

It’s hard to describe the level of creativity, intellect, and humor that was poured into this one-of-a-kind book. Every time I sit down to read a new study I find myself in stitches, dumbfounded by the hilarious deadpan delivery and graphical references to back up the “facts”. The amount of effort and attention to detail that B. McGraw puts into each study is ever-present, and something every writer should aspire to achieve no matter the subject. Thank you for the laughs B, looking forward to the next one!

Where do you begin to describe the sea of beautifully written mental excrement that forms the basis of the absurd theses and abstract papers that makes articles written by the Onion a paltry drop in to Et al's ocean?Never before has a brilliant mind set itself to the task of packing a paper with as many jokes, sub-jokes, in-jokes, out-jokes, sub-text, overt-text, and a newly discovered quantum particle now dubbed Humions, the funniest of bosons. This book should be required reading as a masterclass text on how NOT to form your article or journal submission unless your goal is to get laughed out of the scientific community. From the absurdist titles and abstracts to the comedic citations, there is no point where a joke isn't slapping your eyeballs and tickling your axions. The conclusions are insane-ly funny and are entirely joke based, joke supported, and comedy packed nicely.To say anything negative about this book would be a disservice to academics everywhere that have been forced to read though countless poorly assembled research articles. It is a soul-crushing task that drains the love and joy of life from the researcher, and rapidly ages them purely for the chance to get their name put on a piece of sheepskin or published material. THIS BOOK, undoes the normally irreversible damage and can actually restore the soles of even shoes that have been tossed aside by expert cobblers as impossible to fix. If you, the reader of this review take anything away from these musings, remember the following; A joke book will give you a witty one liner and you may chuckle. Et al will give you an expertly honed yet obscure one liner that for the person in the know, it's laughing turtles all the way down.BE the life of your water cooler. Start conversations with article titles alone. Seem smarter than you are. BE smarter than the book! All this joy and more can be yours for the low low price of three large coffees. Get it now before the author realizes how much more they can make if they charged actual academic journal prices for 161.8% better quality prose.

There's an old saying: "when Alexander the Great saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer". Similarly, when I finished reading this book, my eyes watered uncontrollably, as I realized I would never experience such a tremendous literary work ever again in my life. Much as how Olympic athletes walk around in a daze after winning their gold medals, or astronauts fall into melancholy after returning to Earth, I will forever walk around knowing no book will overcome what this book has achieved. I scoff at Tolstoy and Dickens - they are nothing compared to the amazing emotional and literary depth of this work of art.

Hilarity for anyone who has ever read (or skimmed) a journal article.What makes this work so remarkable is the sheer amount of dedication to maintaining the format, verbiage, and style of serious academic work... while articulating pure high-caliber absurdism. This combination really works: it had me crying with laughter within a couple minutes.Some examples: One of the articles in this book (which is hilarious by itself) references its Appendix A. If you turn a few pages (past the citations) to this Appendix A, you will find a convincing spoof of the Communist Manifesto, as if it were written by trees. Another article is an evaluation of the historicity of a Rabbit War that may have devastated several small German towns in the Middle Ages.This book belongs on the coffee table of anyone who has done a bit too much (read: any) research.

A lot of work went into writing this. I'm not much of a fan of this kind of humor BUT I appreciate good stuff when I see it.There are a lot of inside jokes that are targeted (in my opinion) at trendy buzzword "science" delivered in a sort-of Dad joke kind of way. It's clean, it's fun, it's the perfect gift for someone who is glued to a computer and into tech.Four stars because I'm not the target audience. However, perfect for the holiday gift for your favorite nerd!

Wow. A genre I didn’t know existed until I picked up this book, and now can’t get enough of. STEM geeks will get a kick out of all the Easter eggs throughout, and get serious flashbacks to lab reports from college. But the best part is a super approachable writing that people of any background will find hilarious. Perfect for a coffee table, each entry can be read in a quick sitting and will have your whole house howling!

If Monty Python and Mad Magazine had a baby, and Popular Science and Scientific American also had a baby, and if those two babies grew up and got together and had a baby, the ensuing child would be Et al. Et al. is a truly hilarious book that I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys science and humor. You will start laughing during the preface and will not stop laughing for weeks after reading the book. Just thinking about some of the articles in this book will make you laugh. It is one of the funniest books I have ever read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

My mom says this isn't even a real genre and she's a librarian.Jokes aside, if that is even possible, this is a unique compilation of many interesting and bogus ideas that will get you thinking! My favorite article is about the Wood Wide Web which is how trees communicate via an underground fungus network. I recommend this book to anyone with an academic background who is looking for a laugh!

Now I need to preface this by saying, you need to have an appreciation for research paper or study in a field that often do research paper, I'm a chemistry bachelor's, and these get a chuckle out of me, I'll probably buy the real book (bought the ebook, small library) when I buy my own flat, but I'm glad I was told about this.