A review by tsemoana
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe

2.0

I love XKCD, and Munroe's other book, What If?, is fantastic. But this was an exercise in frustration. Which is why it took me so fucking long to finish. He's not actually explaining stuff in simpler terms, he's replacing words with simple words. And then using those same simple words to explain. Making it so that if you don't know the topic of a page well (enough) there's so much that just isn't clear. I spent so much time mentally translating the text into actual terms that make sense, it just wasn't any fun to read. And that is what I expected from the book. Would have been better if he had not adhered so strictly to this set of words. And given actual terms to then explain in simpler words.