My family bought me this book for my birthday at least partly to see whether reading it might make tea come out of my nose as had gratifyingly (for them) happened with an earlier Bill Bryson book that I had anti-socially taken to the table because I couldn't stop reading it.
It didn't, but it did cause me to go AWOL from my domestic responsibilities for quite some time, and sometimes to stagger round clutching my head as my brain refused to assimilate any more. I enjoyed it enormously. It's Bill Bryson's enviable gift to be able to write so clearly and elegantly, conveying his enthusiasm without drawing attention to his erudition. The fact that you find yourself becoming passionately interested in glaciers after a lifetime of not giving them a second thought says it all. Reading this book is a moving, frightening, awe inspiring and yet curiously optimistic experience, and everyone should do it.
My only complaint is that Doubleday have chosen not to bind this book properly. Gluing books together, especially hardback books, ought to be some sort of crime.
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I have never felt so compelled to write a review before; this book is a true masterpiece. Bill brings science to the masses in an entertaining and easy to understand manner. If you've ever wondered for example, what the theory of relativity actually means, get this book. I read it in a week, now I am going to read it again, and probably again after that! The size of the volume belies the breadth of topics covered.
Alongside the huge amount of science contained in this book, we also look back at the constant bickering, back-stabbing and fallings-out of history's great scientists and revolutionaries and wonder how scientific knowledge managed to advance in light of this.
This is truly a magnificent achievement given the author is not a scientist, but then if it were written by a scientist, would I have understood a word of it, and would I have enjoyed it so much?
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Excellent! Just great... This book filled in all the gaps my school years left out. Whilst I may never remember all the information in the book, I can certainly say that my understanding of why we are who we are is greatly improved. I would suggest you buy the paperback version as the hardback is a little bit of a tomb due to the wealth of text contained within. Bryson is not at his literary best is this offering, however his insight and historical accuracy leave no stone unturned. I am a bigger fan of Bryson by the day and have 5 of his titles under my [reading] belt now... this title does a great service to his continued range of subjects and I can't wait to see what Bryson puts under the microscope next!
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I've always enjoyed Bill Bryson's books. He could write about the dullest, most depressing seaside resort I've ever visited and make me want to go back just to revisit it through his eyes. His skill is his desire to research an area so thoroughly that you see it in another light entirely. He has brought this skill to bear in amazing ways - making the history of the English language (Mother Tongue) or English versus American culture (Made in America) absorbing and hilarious reads, even making a dictionary of tricky and often misused words a great book to sit down and read page by page (Troublesome Words). A Short History of Nearly Everything is far and away his most ambitious book. I personally love books like this, and if I had a wish list of authors I would like to sit down for 3 years to try and make sense of the heaviest scientific questions I could think of, and try and make the answers enlightening and amusing, I would pick Bill. This man could research the inside of a ping-pong ball and come up with fifty amusing factual stories about it. When he's dealing with the history of the universe... I just wish the book were longer. Or part of a series. I don't wish to sound selfish, but every moment Bill Bryson spends not writing books like this is just an annoyance to me.
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I am a big fan of popular science books and have read quite a few. This one rates as one of the best ever. The writing style is enthusiastic and Bryson can certainly tell a good story. In some places, it is clear that he is also an excellent travel writer. The chapter on the Yellowstone National Park is a case in point and gives a real sense of place. Bryson is able to explain complex scientific ideas clearly and without too many numbers which can be a bit off putting. I also like the fact that this book really does cover "nearly everything" from astro-physics, to micro-biology with some areas of science that don't seem to be too well-visited by the casual reader. There is a lot of interesting stuff about scientists as well as the science, and this helps you to appreciate a little bit about what it's like to work at the cutting edge of scientific discovery. This book is a real page turner, and I was completely gripped from start to finish. If you already like reading popular science and you haven't bought this yet, then you really should. If you haven't so far read any popular science books, but you'd like to be a bit better informed about the current state of understanding, then you could do far worse than buy this book.
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I don't often give a book five stars but this one is exceptional. As a Science graduate (a long time ago) I had a poor knowledge of a lot of physical phenomena - and this book plugged most of the gaps. Not that it requires any scientific knowledge on your part. It's very well written and explains things in an interesting and clear manner. The insights into the people behind many of the break-throughs were particularly interesting.
So if you want to know the age of the earth (and how we know this), how mountains form, how we worked out the size of the earth, how life began, how an atom bomb works, and where we're heading in the future then this book is for you. It should be mandatory reading for every grown-up. Absolutely perfect bedside reading.
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I bought this book initially as something for me to read at night before going to bed - something easy. Turns out, I was right. It is the MOST easy and informative reading ive ever done in my life. Suffice to say, I was hooked on it (yes, ive read it more than 5 times and need to look for a different book now, its sad). Its one of the most fluent books written on the subjects brought up. Its goes all the way from those mini superstrings to Darwinism etc etc, trying to explain in lay man`s term, the universe itself in general and more specifically, of our earth, from a scientific perspective. This guy weaves explanatory science with twists of details of the scientists/explorers who did the work (or not) - the kind of stories you could hardly dig up from ordinary science book and lecturers alike. You end up feeling knowing a lot more about the universe, and at the same time, feel that you still are empty and crave for more. Its truly marvellous - I just hope somebody else is going to produce something this good sometime soon - Its hard to sleep now!
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I bought 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' because I read an interview with Bill Bryson where he describes it as a book for anyone who is interested in science and how things work but never enjoyed it as an academic subject. As this descibes me too a T I purchased a copy hoping that it would provide me with an idiot's guide to the world.
The book does way more than that. In five hundered pages roughly evenly divided between what can be grouped as physics, chemistry, biology and geo/eco sciences he exaplins the bare bones of what you need to know to understand human life and the galaxy we live in. And boy does he describe it well. By providing us with amusing pen portraits of the key figures (and there are some very odd fish indeed) and taking the protracted route to his point in order to fit in a few good anacdotes he accompanies the science with fascinating and funny information.
As for the science itself, it's blissfully acessible. In fact, at times I found myself wishing he'd go into slightly more depth because I recognised that he'd left out things I'd covered in science GCSEs. On other occasions however, especially in the realm of quantum physics and subatomic physics (what else?), I did have to concentrate very hard to get it. Accounting for individual differences I'd say that most people could understand the science without too many problems.
His gift with language is wonderfully apparent throughout the book. Not only is it well structured, craftily so in fact, but the prose is snappy, the pace comfortable and his paragraphing perfect. Bryson seems to have borne in mind as he wrote that his target audience won't have had much patience for science books in the past and thus it doesn't read like a text book at all but as an amusing and well written meander theough the personalities and discoveries of the scientific past. He even manages to make some of the really big (or really small) numbers comprehensible!
I recommend 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' very highly, even though it isn't a history of nearly everything. This is a good thing as it means that there's lots more for him to write similar books about. Roll on the sequel!
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I had bought and read the original book when it came out first, and thought it was brilliant. When I saw that there was an illustrated edition i put it on my wish list for Christmas. When I got it I was so disappointed. I was hoping that the illustration would enhance the book but photographs of the scientists he is talking about, covers of science fiction magazines and a few loosely connected illustrations don't add to the written word. Save your money and buy the non illustrated version. This edition is a shameless ploy to extract a few more pounds/euros/dollars from people who are already fans of the book.
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Well ... I've now finished a book that had been sitting on my shelf for about two years! I'd been waiting for a good chance to start ploughing through it and recuperation from a back operation was the perfect opportunity!
I now feel I have a much better insight into the planet I live on, although I'll freely admit that my grasp of particle physics and the theory of relativity is still a little hazy.
In a strange way I found this book very life-affirming. I feel much better educated having read it, although I am in danger of becoming a bit of a bore. I have also now developed a strange and altogether new fondness for geology?!?
I will never forget two things:
1. How to draw the planets of our solar system on a piece of paper (i.e. you can't unless it's many kilometres wide)
2. Every diagram you've ever seen of an atom is complete rubbish too.
I loved this book and hope you will too!
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