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

"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.

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Published Sep 17, 2019

480 pages

Average rating: 9.33

3 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

WaxingWaterWolf
Sep 14, 2025
10/10 stars
Amazing book. The audiobook edition has the illustrations read out to you (which, coming from one who was gifted the physical copy of the book, is a bit of a loss) but it also has a few extra recipes! Listening to the music section is a huge advantage in my opinion (speaking as one who never plans to play music). To me, hearing the songs was more meaningful than having the pages of music notes.

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