How To

Randall Munroe

2019 • 304 pages

Ratings98

Average rating4

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. Munroe has created a guide to the third kind of approach. He provides highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. In exploring the absurd, he opens up an understanding to the science and technology underlying the things we do every day. -- adapted from jacket.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Colin Gooding

I'm not a diehard XKCD reader or anything, but it's a clever and fun comic strip so I was hoping for the same here. And that's kind of what this is, but it didn't really work for me for some reason. There are some fun bits, but a lot of it is just a bit too drawn out or one note for me.

I might have done myself a disservice listening to this via audiobook though, I believe the printed version includes a lot of comics and other illustrations.

March 25, 2022

cal3b

I actually preferred this one a lot to the 1st

January 19, 2022

jess

This is a fun exploration of engineering principles for when you never really need them.
Well, I dunno, I do need to cross rivers sometimes. Maybe I could use this advice.
The pictures are fantastic.

You will probably laugh out loud and have trouble explaining what is so funny.

October 26, 2021