A
NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, USA TODAY,
AND
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
BESTSELLER
“[A] diverse and enlightening book . . .
The 99% Invisible City
is altogether fresh and imaginative when it comes to thinking about urban spaces.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“Here is a field guide, a boon, a
bible
, for the urban curious. Your city’s secret anatomy laid bare—a hundred things you look at but don’t see, see but don’t know. Each entry is a compact, surprising story, a thought piece, an invitation to marvel. Together, they are almost transformative. To know why things are as they are adds a satisfying richness to daily existence. This book is terrific, just terrific.”
—Mary Roach,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Stiff
,
Grunt,
and
Gulp
“
brings into view the fascinating but often unnoticed worlds we walk and drive through every day, and to read it is to feel newly alive and aware of your place in the world. This book made me laugh, and it made me cry, and it reminded me to always read the plaque.”
—John Green,
The Fault in Our Stars
Turtles All The Way Down
A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular
99% Invisible
podcast
Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean?
Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings?
Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships?
is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.
Now, in
The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design
, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout,
will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.