"Why Didn't I Think of That? 101 Inventions That Changed the World By Hardly Trying" by Anthony Rubino

209 pages

Some of the things we use every day are really simple, when you think about it. This book gives a brief (one-page) history of 101 such things, from duck tape (developed to keep moisture out of ammunition cases in World War II) to popsickles (accidentally created after someone left a drink with a stirring stick outside the cold) to Post-It notes (dreamed up by a 3M employee who couldn't get his bookmark to stay in place during choir practice). The author describes how each invention or discovery changed the world it its own little way. There's plenty of humor to go with the facts, as the author pokes fun at the wacky ways that some common things were invented. Some of the jokes are too corny for my taste, but there were a few parts that made me laugh out loud. For many inventions, there is more information about what came before it, or what motivated the inventor, than information about where the idea actually came from or how it worked. Still, I enjoyed this book. It taught me a thing or two about things that I hadn't thought much about before, and it made me laugh!