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

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Time machine broke down? Don’t worry — this book contains all you need to know to rebuild civilization! Crammed full of science and history, bursting with humor and personality, How to Invent Everything is the most wildly inventive, fascinating book I’ve read in a long time. Recommended By Gigi L., Powells.com

“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 a time machine hurled you thousands of years into the past... and then broke? How would you survive? Could you improve on humanity’s original timeline? And how hard would it be to domesticate a giant wombat?

With this book as your guide, you’ll survive — and thrive — in any period in Earth’s history. Bestselling author and time travel enthusiast Ryan North shows you how to invent all the modern conveniences we take for granted — from first principles. This illustrated manual contains all the science, engineering, art, philosophy, facts, and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization from the ground up. Deeply researched, irreverent, and significantly more fun than being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger, How to Invent Everything will make you smarter, more competent, and completely prepared to become the most important and influential person ever. You’re about to make history... better.

“A witty pop science guide intended for those demanding times when one needs to create a civilization from scratch…wry humor keeps the discussion lighthearted. North’s ‘survival guide’ is a fun, thoughtful, and thoroughly accessible reference for curious readers, students, and world-builders, as well as wayward time travelers.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Ryan North’s latest is a handy guide for what to do if you get stuck in the Stone Age....The manual stands well on its own, even if you’ll never set foot in a time machine.” Popular Mechanics

“Hilarious and endlessly fascinating....For the vast general population that might decide to trust their lives to the FC3000, this book is potentially invaluable (and mighty entertaining) one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about life, the universe, and the fly wheel.” Christian Science Monitor

“Technically, we are all time travelers and we are all trapped. So, even if you happen to be scanning this blurb in what you perceive to be a ‘normal’ timeline, I heartily recommend you read this book cover to cover.” Zach Weinersmith, creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and author of Soonish

Ryan North is the New York Times bestselling author of Romeo and/or Juliet and To Be or Not To Be. He’s the creator of Dinosaur Comics and the Eisner Award-winning writer of Adventure Time, Jughead, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel Comics, and he has a master’s in computational linguistics from the University of Toronto. Ryan lives in Toronto with his wife, Jenn, and their dog, Noam Chompsky.