How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler Paperback – 18 Sept. 2018

great reminded me of childhood

Strange book - good idea but badly written, organised and compiled. The style doesn't help, a smart-alec smugness pervades every page which would be OK if the book was not also purporting to be helpful, a guidebook on 'reinventing' simple but history-changing inventions. But the author seems to present himself as a progressive, liberal arts thinker so there's actually nothing at all about gunpowder or even the bow and arrow but plenty about the the kinds of late 90s music he likes. This could have been a sensational tight, useful and clever 'survival'-type handbook on how to survive history but, instead we get what appears to be a collection of disparate blog posts the author had on his iPad, loosely tied together to make a book he could pitch to his publishers.

I heard about this book on my last trip to the US and it immediately spoke to me. It is centered around the thought experiment of what would you do if you travelled back in time with a time machine and it broke down. And depending on when or where you landed what would you need to do if you wanted to start rebuilding the modern world.It is surprisingly comprehensive and has a great sense of humor. It convers topics such as domesticating animals, growing crops, making soap, contraceptives, tanning leather, building an engine, math, science and a whole other treasure trove of topics. It’s not really a book that I could read straight through cover to cover. It is a sort of reference book where you ask yourself how would I do that and the go down the rabbit hole from there as you go from topic to topic. It’s a lot like getting lost in Wikipedia as you jump from topic to topic.Despite being comprehensive, it is only one book, and can’t cover everything in extensive depth. That would require a huge encyclopedia (please someone write that!) but it does at least graze every topic I could think of so far and does justice to almost all of them. The whole time keep it lighthearted and fun. I can fully recommend this book!

Nett geschrieben, kurzweilig und man erfährt tatsächlich das ein oder andere Nützliche, sollte man mal in der Vergangenheit fest sitzen. Was halt so passieren kann, wenn die gemietete Zeitmaschine einen Defekt hat.

A bit boring in places, but if you are interested in the history of human technology and toung in cheek humor, this is for you.

except for the obvious - which this book for me was a great read, It's an outstanding commuting experience as chapters are organized and defined into small sections - like a typical manual.

Funny book that had me laugh out loud a couple of times. Great way to learn new things too. Overall, a pleasant balance between knowledge and humor!