Excerpt from the novel..

IF is the ultimate book about fantasy.

"Each of it's questions is meant to spark and tantalize the imagination. They are a celebration of the human spirit, which loves to dream and needs to hope, but which can also fear and even grow angry. Our ability to imagine is the remarkable gift we have been given to lead us into joy and aspiration and out of despair or sadness, because common to all of us is the idea that there could be a different world, perhaps a better one.

How many times a day do we say, "If only.."? If we could create the perfect life, the perfect city, the perfect home, the perfect job, the perfect mate. We all fantasize, and we all dream. We dream of perfection, money, revenge, glory, change. We fantasize about both good and evil, about winning and losing, about our past and future. Fantasies are what inspire us all; to work, marry, raise families, create, improve our world.

It is why we lose ourselves in books, go to movies, watch television, go to the ballgame and on vacation. We dreamed as children and we dream now, because without our fantasies we would be lost.

We imagine in order to learn, to understand, to strive, to attempt, to predict, and avoid, to correct, to describe, to solve.

This book is also a game. It was born of many dinner parties and gatherings, when just to throw out a provocative question and ask for each person's answer always led to the most surprising and fascinating discussions. Every time, a kind of synergetic and addictive momentum took over as answers led to other related questions, reasons were demanded, disagreements were unleashed, conditions were imposed, other's answers were predicted, and inevitably those involved were startled by the responses, at times even their own.

No matter who is present it seems to irresistible, whether we are at a flagging party, or on a long car or plane ride, among a group of students, within a family, or alone with someone very close to us. It is infectious and fascinating to watch and take part in.

Of course implicit in every question is "why?" In some sense it is like taking the pulse of a moment in time, or a group of friends, to see what we believe in; to see what world we envision.

Whether they are read randomly or in sequence, the responses these questions elicit can lead to extraordinary offshoots; other related questions will occur, and variations on these, and attached caveats and conditions "customize" the original list depending on who is there to play. Because everybody, old or young, fat or thin, intelligent or not, from one culture or another, has the ability and inclination to wonder.

And so, aside from the truths that are revealed, the contemplation that is provoked, the confidence or anxiety that surfaces, the self-knowledge that results, or the understanding that might be gained, above all we hope that asking these questions inspires optimism, since no matter who or what we really are, we share the ability to travel together the unpredictable journey of the imagination, which leads us though the wonderful game of life." 

Preface direct from:
"The Book Of If - Questions for the games of life and love"
By Evelyn Mcfarlane and James Saywell.