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How To  By  cover art

How To

By: Randall Munroe
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
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Publisher's summary

The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If? and Thing Explainer.  

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.  

Best-selling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analysing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. 

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his listeners. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.

©2019 xkcd inc (P)2019 Penguin Random House Audio

What listeners say about How To

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When is the next one available?

Only one complaint: it’s too short.

The Munroe/Wheaton combo is my favourite on Audible. I’ve listened to “What If” at least ten times, both my children love it, and I pre-ordered “How To” as soon as it became available.

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it was only 6 hours long. It is awesome - but I want more!! I finished it in a day and just started listening a second time.

Being on the next publication.

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too-much vocal fry

An intrestingly silly jaunt by munroe from the amusing and impractical to allmost usefull information.

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  • brad
  • 10-27-19

Great book

Really enjoyed this and has furthered my interest in physics. It's great to have a book you can learn from but is also really entertaining and keeps you interested even when it's all about numbers and formulas
Could not rate Randall Munroe any higher

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  • M. Marshall
  • 09-17-19

No comparison to What If?

Was looking forward to this as I loved What If? This is no where near the same level. Learning about all the ways you can cross a river is no comparison to learning how long you'll survive in a submarine in space, or whether a machine gun jetpack would work.

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  • Hal
  • 07-13-20

Entertaining information

I totally didn't recognize Will's voice til he said ot at the end. I face-palmed. Great read!

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  • Charles Cowie
  • 03-30-23

idk it's good

idk it's good and its rely funy and cleaver I enjoyed this I recomend for peopl who need a book









yea

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  • Kevin Nagurski
  • 08-30-22

If you liked What If, then you’ll like this too

What If is laugh out loud funny and surprisingly informative. This is just the same. I hope Randle continues to write even more user manuals for life

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  • longarmjon
  • 11-15-21

escape to the real world

guy's a genius....highly entertaining way of looking at science 🤩⭐🧘⭐🤩 let's all put our houses on an aeroplane!!!

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  • Mr. Baker
  • 10-01-21

information you may need for further information

information you may need for further information for future applications and planning of projects

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  • mtg101
  • 02-06-21

xkcd and Wil

yeah it's what it said it would be, excellent. nerdy numbers in a fun way, with great narration

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  • The Dark Newt
  • 11-11-20

Shut up Wesley.

A good book, read to us by the most soy, beta man ever to wear a pair of trousers.

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  • Ms C Higman
  • 03-07-20

Fantastic!

Fascinating, absurd and illuminating throughout. Very well adapted, and brilliantly read. Comic/scientific/literary genius. Love it!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 10-12-19

Great

The narration by Will Wheaton is really good. The writing of the book is both thought provoking and entertaining. My only problem are in a few of the chapters there a physic formula, which don’t lend well to a audiobook. Apart from that, I would recommend it.

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  • Maxwell
  • 10-12-20

This was hilarious!!

Few books have ever made me actually laugh out loud, but Randall's books both had me in tears a few times

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  • G. van Staden
  • 12-18-19

Good but SI Units Would’ve Made it Great

A truely interesting and entertaining book! Some of the examples are in feet and inches which detracts a bit from their impact on folk like myself who are use to SI units. Some of the equations don’t work well in audio format, it would’ve been better if this was provided as additional material that could be viewed. Still well worth a careful listen

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