I laughed out loud when I saw the How To square on this year’s bingo card – days before a friend had given me Randall Munroe’s latest How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems when I had lamented my inability lately to sink into reading anything. Her answer to that problem (and it is a good answer) was something intended to be read in small pieces and not all at once, and something that is both humorous and full of interesting information. Checks all around.
Reviewing this one is difficult, because I basically just want to ask you, my fellow readers, questions and if you answer yes, then this is a book you might want to pick up. Questions such as:
- Do you find yourself wondering if you could accomplish a basic task in the most ludicrous method possible?
- Do you enjoy random facts and footnotes?
- Are you someone who enjoys and appreciates the beauty of well-done stick figure drawings?
- Are you already familiar with xkcd and Russell Monroe?
- Is absurd, but strait-laced humor, your jam?
See, its more about you the reader than the book itself. I stand by this assessment.
If your answers to even most of those questions is yes than this is something that you might want to pick up for yourself to have around. I will mention that you probably absolutely want to read this book in dead tree format – you want the graphics – and I’m just not sure how they would show up on your eReader of choice and you’d lose them entirely in the audio version.
Bingo Square: How To
