How To

Cartoonist Randall Munroe of the webcomic xkcd writes a guide to the third way of doing any task: not the right way or the wrong way, but one so complex, excessive and inadvisable that nobody would try it. Each chapter takes a single problem, from digging a hole to landing a plane, and works through solutions grounded in scientific fact. Munroe explains how to cross a river by boiling it, take a selfie with a telescope, forecast weather from the pixels of Facebook photos, and power a house by destroying space-time. For the chapter on catching a drone, Serena Williams knocked one out of the air with a tennis ball.

Bill Gates endorsed it as a wonderful guide for curious minds.