How to Take Over the World - by Ryan North (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Taking over the world is a lot of work. Any supervillain is bound to have questions. What's the perfect location for a floating secret base? What zany heist will fund my immoral plans? How do I control the weather, destroy the Internet, and never, ever die? In [this book], bestselling author and award-winning comics writer Ryan North details a number of outlandish villainous schemes, drawing on known science and real-world technologies. Picking up where How to Invent Everything left off, his explanations are as fun and informative as they are completely absurd"--

Book Synopsis

NAMED A BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE

"Comic book fans will fall hard for this delightfully daffy guidebook. . . . Exuberant, optimistic, and just plain fun, How to Take Over the World will both surprise and delight." --Esquire

A book this informative should be a crime!

Taking over the world is a lot of work. Any supervillain is bound to have questions: What's the perfect location for a floating secret base? What zany heist will fund my wildly ambitious plans? How do I control the weather, destroy the internet, and never, ever die?

Bestselling author and award-winning comics writer Ryan North has the answers. In this introduction to the science of comic-book supervillainy, he details a number of outlandish villainous schemes that harness the potential of today's most advanced technologies. Picking up where How to Invent Everything left off, his explanations are as fun and elucidating as they are completely absurd.

You don't have to be a criminal mastermind to share a supervillain's interest in cutting-edge science and technology. This book doesn't just reveal how to take over the world--it also shows how you could save it. This sly guide to some of the greatest threats facing humanity accessibly explores emerging techniques to extend human life spans, combat cyberterrorism, communicate across millennia, and finally make Jurassic Park a reality.

Review Quotes

Praise for How to Take Over the World

"An irreverent romp through geeky tropes that also sends up the undying self-help genre. Who among us hasn't thought about the best way to construct a secret, technologically advanced lair from which we might conquer all humanity? North assumes we all have, and in doing so he zaps the fun back into one of pop culture's most enduring archetypes." --NPR

"[How to Take Over the World] is full of extremely funny, extremely informative riffs that make for an engrossing frame for very deep dives into knowledge that is esoteric, interdisciplinary, and damned interesting." --Cory Doctorow on Twitter

"Who among us has never dreamed of living on a secret base, riding around on a dinosaur and holding the Earth's core hostage? . . . The joy of this book comes from the straight-faced seriousness with which North approaches each scheme. . . . fun and accessible." --Nature

"Comic book fans will fall hard for this delightfully daffy guidebook. . . . Exuberant, optimistic, and just plain fun, How to Take Over the World will both surprise and delight." --Esquire

"An eclectic journey, full to the brim with North's trademark sarcasm and humor. An excellent starting point for anyone interested in learning more about cutting edge science or becoming a supervillain." --Booklist

"Witty and deviously delightful. I never knew reading about becoming a supervillain could feel so wholesome!" --Simone Giertz

"How to Take Over the World isn't just an amazing how-to manual, it's a fun, insightful look into our place on the planet and in time. I found myself thinking about it for weeks after. Honestly, I think it changed my life!" --Chip Zdarsky, writer for Daredevil, Spider-Man: Life Story, and Howard the Duck

"This book is so brilliant that it's frankly suspicious. Nobody should be surprised when Ryan North inevitably does take over the world. If this wildly entertaining, whip-smart, and hilarious book is his confession, he's more than capable of it. And now, thanks to reading it... so am I." --Elan Mastai, author of All Our Wrong Todays

"I can attest that How to Take Over the World is both a) filled with actual science (including linguistics!) and b) hilarious." --Gretchen McCulloch, New York Times-bestselling author of Because Internet

"How to Take Over the World lays out a hilarious, but totally factual, blueprint for all the ways aspiring supervillains could seize power, control minds and dominate the earth. It's a little dangerous, but all in good fun--so long as Pinky and the Brain don't catch wind of it." --BookPage

About the Author

Ryan North is a New York Times-bestselling author whose books include How to Invent Everything, Romeo and/or Juliet, and To Be or Not To Be. He's the creator of Dinosaur Comics and the Eisner Award-winning writer of Adventure Time, Jughead, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel Comics, and he has a master's in computational linguistics from the University of Toronto. Ryan lives in Toronto with his wife, Jenn, and their dog, Noam Chompsky.