A Short History of Nearly Everything
One of the world’s most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body takes his ultimate journey—into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.
In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail—well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail—well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
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Community Reviews
Good readable summary that explains many things that I thought I understood (but clearly had no clue!)
What a great book for a nerd. Bryson really does try to cover nealy everything in this book, from The Big Bang theory to dinosaurs to human origins and human cells and DNA. This is definitely not an in-depth book on any of these subjects but it gives you enough of a peek into a everything that you can be prodded into doing more research on your own.
Science is a favorite subject for me to read about. There wasn't much of this book that didn't make me a happy camper (except finding out that if you've owned your pillow for more than 6 years, 1/10 of it's weight is live mites, dead mites and mite poop. Guh.). It's written for the layperson, you don't need to be a nerd to appreciate it.
As always, Bryson is a fun writer, making even DNA fun and exciting to read about.
Science is a favorite subject for me to read about. There wasn't much of this book that didn't make me a happy camper (except finding out that if you've owned your pillow for more than 6 years, 1/10 of it's weight is live mites, dead mites and mite poop. Guh.). It's written for the layperson, you don't need to be a nerd to appreciate it.
As always, Bryson is a fun writer, making even DNA fun and exciting to read about.
I really enjoyed this book. It's a very entertaining history of scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, biology, oceanography, anthropology, and evolution. Bryson attempts to familiarize the reader with the actual science as well, and not just the history. Most of the new things I learned were in the weather section- or if I'd learned them before I'd long ago forgotten them. I borrowed this from the library but I enjoyed it enough that I just bought my own copy.
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