Modern Conveniences That Would've Rewritten History

I had a great time reading this, it was interesting to read about how modern conveniences could have changed the past. Riya Aarini does a great job in keeping the book engaging and kept my interest.

A nice dive back into time with this book. Starting from prehistoric times with the cavemen and fast-forwarding to the 20th century, this novel covers the timeline of history with notable figures of fame. Each chapter describes the context of the famous public figure or royal, the issue that they had to tolerate, and a modern convenience that would’ve made their lives a hundred times better at that time.

For example, an interesting part was of Chichen Itza’s Mayan priests climbing the 91 steps of the pyramid daily, to perform sacred rituals. The modern convenience Aarini describes is of implementing the use of escalators on the four sides of the pyramid, to ease the arduous journey of the priests. Unfortunately, elevators would come much, much later.

Another example to illustrate, is that eBooks would have preserved the thousands of valuable literature and works in the burning of the Library of Alexandria- back in the year 48 BC. Alas, if only eBooks were available at that time.

Just like this, it was fascinating to explore the different celebrated historical figures, with their appropriate modern-day solution to their problems. Most of the time these present solutions were a sort of technology. And many of these proposed technologies were based on artificial intelligence and were ‘smart’ products, namely pocket translators, posture correctors, speech writers, sofas, socks etc.

To conclude, this book was a good piece of non-fiction, with elements of creativity that weren’t overstepped. Moreover, the writing style was persuasive.

A few quotes from the novel:

- "If only Columbus' small ships were fitted with a modern convenience- the over-the-horizon radar- he'd have known during his voyage that a large continent lay between Spain and his intended destination.

- "Now, had a modern convenience- eBooks- been available at the time of the Great Library of Alexandria, the legacy of impressively diverse knowledge would have been saved."


(My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy.)

The cover is fantastic. Crisp and quirky illustrations that draw your attention, which may lead you to think this book is something that it's not.

This is a 'serious' book. Very well written, researched and cited. It asks and answers the "what ifs". Depending on the scenario, the answer can be quite astounding - as is seen in the first entry with Alexander the Great and Antibiotics - while others are less so but still interesting.

The author totes this book as being more about perception and gratitude of living in today's more comfortable society.

A really unique book.