--- product_id: 191507620 title: "The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design" price: "187.74 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/191507620-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design **Price:** 187.74 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design - **How much does it cost?** 187.74 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/191507620-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description 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 “ The 99% Invisible City 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, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and 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? 99% Invisible 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, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them. Review: 4.6 stars. 1) desperately needs photographic images, 2) NOT a "field guide," 3) echoes the podcast - It is quite wonderful and everyone should buy it. That said, it has two serious flaws. On consideration I didn't think they were worth deducting a full star. FIrst, it's illustrated only by what some reviewers call "beautiful line drawings" by Patrick Vale. The drawings are functional in several ways. They are much more legible on my classic black-and-white e-Ink technology KIndle. And because they are drawings, they can illustrate things very clearly in a small space. In some cases, the drawings seem "clever" and "clear." In other cases, I regret to say, they just seem "crude." Consider the beautifully painted manhole covers of Osaka Japan. They are works of art. They are in color, they are delicate, and they are immensely varied. What kind of nut thinks you can convey this adequately in a single black-and-white sketch of one of them? No words, however eloquent, can make up for it. I don't know what constraints led to this decision, but it sucks. I need to read this book with a tablet next to me, and make web searches as I read each page in order to see adequate images of the things the book is describing. In this case, a decent minimum would six to twelve full-color images. Second, the title promises a "field guide." It isn't. There is no way you can look at something weird in the urban landscape, go to the book and identify it. It doesn't even attempt to provide one. At least one website classifies it as a "reference work." It isn't. It's a great read, like a book by Bill Bryson or John McPhee, but it is no field guide. Third, I haven't tried to collate the chapter titles against the podcast episode titles, but rather a lot of the essays are based on topics that have been the subject of "99% Invisible" podcast episodes. If you are a regular follower of the podcast, as I am, a lot of this material will seem familiar. Review: Awesome Read - I got this book due to the fact that it seemed everyone was talking about it at a bookstore that I was at and when I saw this at an amazing deal from desertcart I had to buy it. What an incredible book. I learned so much about walking through a city and not noticing things that the book writes about. The book is straight to the point and very easy to understand. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to learn or just find it fascinating what to look for while walking through a city. This book is awesome! ## Images ![The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810hZrZBi9L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.6 stars. 1) desperately needs photographic images, 2) NOT a "field guide," 3) echoes the podcast *by D***H on October 23, 2020* It is quite wonderful and everyone should buy it. That said, it has two serious flaws. On consideration I didn't think they were worth deducting a full star. FIrst, it's illustrated only by what some reviewers call "beautiful line drawings" by Patrick Vale. The drawings are functional in several ways. They are much more legible on my classic black-and-white e-Ink technology KIndle. And because they are drawings, they can illustrate things very clearly in a small space. In some cases, the drawings seem "clever" and "clear." In other cases, I regret to say, they just seem "crude." Consider the beautifully painted manhole covers of Osaka Japan. They are works of art. They are in color, they are delicate, and they are immensely varied. What kind of nut thinks you can convey this adequately in a single black-and-white sketch of one of them? No words, however eloquent, can make up for it. I don't know what constraints led to this decision, but it sucks. I need to read this book with a tablet next to me, and make web searches as I read each page in order to see adequate images of the things the book is describing. In this case, a decent minimum would six to twelve full-color images. Second, the title promises a "field guide." It isn't. There is no way you can look at something weird in the urban landscape, go to the book and identify it. It doesn't even attempt to provide one. At least one website classifies it as a "reference work." It isn't. It's a great read, like a book by Bill Bryson or John McPhee, but it is no field guide. Third, I haven't tried to collate the chapter titles against the podcast episode titles, but rather a lot of the essays are based on topics that have been the subject of "99% Invisible" podcast episodes. If you are a regular follower of the podcast, as I am, a lot of this material will seem familiar. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Awesome Read *by L***L on December 13, 2024* I got this book due to the fact that it seemed everyone was talking about it at a bookstore that I was at and when I saw this at an amazing deal from Amazon I had to buy it. What an incredible book. I learned so much about walking through a city and not noticing things that the book writes about. The book is straight to the point and very easy to understand. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to learn or just find it fascinating what to look for while walking through a city. This book is awesome! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A 10-Yearbook of Design Exploration *by B***T on October 16, 2020* I discovered 99% Invisible's podcast in 2012 and they have been telling interesting design stories in new exciting ways. (I immediately digested their whole backcatalog) The 99% Invisible City is a wonderful revisiting and update of many topics, not a cut-and-paste of transcripts, and it shows. Handsomely crafted with distinctive illustrations and typography, it is meticulously organized into six distinct sections with a very in-depth Table of Contents and Index. There are many things that this book will help you see clearly no matter which city you live in. A cornucopia for the curious! BUY THIS BOOK for your whole family and go exploring! ## Frequently Bought Together - The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design - Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment - Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components (Packaging may vary) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/191507620-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/191507620-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-08-11*