How to Invent Everything

By Ryan North,

Book cover of How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler

Book description

"How to Invent Everything is such a cool book. It's essential reading for anyone who needs to duplicate an industrial civilization quickly." --Randall Munroe, xkcd creator and New York Times-bestselling author of What If?

The only book you need if you're going back in time

What would you do if…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked How to Invent Everything as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

A lot of speculative fiction involves “basic” technologies like animal domestication, farming, and written language. This well-organized, thoroughly sourced non-fiction book will tell you just how difficult developing all that stuff was on our planet, let alone in whatever fictional universes you may find these technologies in! I will never again take charcoal, or the concept of zero, for granted.

Aside from the book’s valuable content, its language is simple. The author integrates the facts into the fiction that our time machine has broken down, stranding us in a previous era where we are a long, arduous journey away from…

From R. E.'s list on looking at the familiar differently.

Want books like How to Invent Everything?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like How to Invent Everything.

Browse books like How to Invent Everything

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in innovation, time travel, and presidential biography?

Innovation 85 books
Time Travel 394 books