BOOK REVIEW: Thing Explainer – Complicated Stuff In Simple Words by Randall Munroe

BOOK REVIEW: Thing Explainer – Complicated Stuff In Simple Words by Randall Munroe

Hachette Australia
December 2015
Hardback, $35.00
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Humour / Reference

10/10

Ever wondered how things work?

From little things like the organs (“bags of stuff inside you”) and cells (“tiny bags of water you’re made of”) that make up our bodies, household things like a washing machine and dryer (“boxes that make clothes smell better”), microwave (“food-heating radio box”), laptops (“bending computer”), pens (“writing sticks”) and cameras (“picture taker”) all the way up through your car engine (“under a car’s front cover”), helicopter (“sky boat with turning wings”), an oil drill platform (“hole-making city boat”) to a space station (“shared space house”), Munroe demystifies even the most complex of procedures with simple line drawings and descriptions which take things down to brass tacks.

Munroe’s tongue is firmly in cheek and part of the appeal here is the comedy inherent in over-simplification of super-tech. There’s some that will stump most readers – but again, that’s part of the fun in a cryptic riddle kind of way.

Thing Explainer is perfect for kids with a questioning nature, but it’s also great fun for a casual flick through for the most non-technical adults, who are bound to learn a lot more about the way machines and nature work than we ever did at school.

Category: Book Reviews