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The Socratic method of teaching – by question and answer – can be boring or appealing. It is used throughout What If You Could Unscramble An Egg? by Robert Ehrlich (Rutgers University Press, $25 ISBN 0 8135 2254 4) and proves effective and amusing. The conversations are between an intelligent questioner and a know-it-all, and cover an incredible range of “what ifs”, laced with wisecracks and cartoons. What if you bought this book and read it in snatches? You would learn a lot about who you are and the world you live in without feeling a single stab of pain and it might even make breakfast more interesting.