How To really captures the magic of Randall’s first book, What If? but in reverse. Instead of analyzing absurd questions with (mostly) reasonable scientific reasoning, he explains how to do simple, reasonable tasks in absurd, completely impractical ways. Punctuated with his legendarily hilarious stick figure drawings, his explanations will almost certainly get at least a chuckle out of you at some point. It doesn’t feature as many world-ending, apocalyptic scenarios as What If? and feels a bit less like an uncontrollable science roller coaster, and some of the humor seems a bit more dry and forced, but overall, it’s a great read and I seriously recommend it.

If you’re a fan of What If?, this is a must have. The questions are as wacky as they are hilarious, and I enjoy learning how I really could build a lava moat if I wanted to! I’d just have to figure out how to build a nuclear power plant first...