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A Short History of Nearly Everything

By Bill Bryson

(289)

| Paperback | 9780552151740

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Book Description

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers 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 In A Sunburned CountContinue

Critics

A Short History of Nearly Everything By Bill Bryson

Learning what your teachers didn't tell youThink for a moment of the human brain as a computer, albeit a very primitive one, perhaps a Pentium "negative four." There is a finite, and severely limited, amount of permanent memory available, after which ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition

Review-a-Day Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 Voice your opinion about this review by posting a comment on the Powells.com blog A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition by Bill Bryson Science for Everyone... Really A review by D ... (read full critics)

powells published on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

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26 Reviews

5 people find this helpful

Incredibly fascinating! Bill Bryson's NON serious style analyzes very serious (and sometimes misterious) science facts making them truly enjoyable for anyone with very little to none science education.
The only minor thing for those who have some passion for science is that the book flows so si ... (continue)

Incredibly fascinating! Bill Bryson's NON serious style analyzes very serious (and sometimes misterious) science facts making them truly enjoyable for anyone with very little to none science education.
The only minor thing for those who have some passion for science is that the book flows so simply and swiftly (with Brison's hunor) that after having read it you are left with a sense of understanding of everything he wrote, but very, very little memory of precise facts and figures to cite to impress or surprise your friends! ;-)

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NickBert said on Aug 2, 2007 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Nice but boring and overestimated

Brison's pocket collection of history of science is one of those readings that should be mandatory for end-of-high-school guys who want to know how things came to be this way today. This implies that it is indeed a remarkable work of collecting and exposing a lot of information in a single bunch of ... (continue)

Brison's pocket collection of history of science is one of those readings that should be mandatory for end-of-high-school guys who want to know how things came to be this way today. This implies that it is indeed a remarkable work of collecting and exposing a lot of information in a single bunch of pages, though it is quite a long book; but also that details and much reasoning are avoided and substituted with an exaggerated focus on curious events in the lives of the players. Therefore, it is indeed amenable to a vast readership, but don't ask for deep thoughts. I would have loved I could have been exposed to it when I was 15 maybe - easy read, bits of irony, broad panoramas, heroes and missions everywhere. But after this, please check out the real thing.

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Mangoo said on Jun 12, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Science History's Underbelly Exposed And Lionized

A history of science from the beginning of time to the present may overwhelm one with facts. But the facts and summaries in this book are so fascinating that one shouldn't worry about not remembering anything afterward, but rather enjoy the moment as it unfolds and take away the general lesson that ... (continue)

A history of science from the beginning of time to the present may overwhelm one with facts. But the facts and summaries in this book are so fascinating that one shouldn't worry about not remembering anything afterward, but rather enjoy the moment as it unfolds and take away the general lesson that science is sometimes made by grit, genius, accident, tragedy, ambition, greed, kindness, cruelty: in short, by humans.
The stories of discovery are sometimes horrifying, and the steps by which our knowledge grows sometimes infinitesimal. But with humour, insight, and comprehensive overview, Bryson gives us the low down by choosing intriguing stories of singular characters: the geniuses, obsessives, eccentrics, philosophers, artists, and humanitarians who made science and drew back the veil inch by painstaking inch from the dead face of ignorance.
This book is a page turner all right, and I look forward to reading Bryson's travelogues. I was engaged throughout yet saddened somewhat by reading about science's forgotten heroes who have given so much to us. We now have largely forgotten their accomplishments, the fruits of which we so greatly benefit from daily. We owe them their stories, the epigraphs upon their gravestones, as it were.
The great lesson of this entertaining chronicle is that without the scientific method, we frail humans would know almost nothing about our world. We all ought to make some effort at least, and reading this book is a great start.

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Ramnagel said on Apr 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

Bill Bryson is an accomplished writer, I knew that, but this is my first time reading his books. And this will definitely not be the last – he's a really funny and interesting writer! He tells arcane facts in a humourous way, turning the history of science – normally a dry and boring topic – into ... (continue)

Bill Bryson is an accomplished writer, I knew that, but this is my first time reading his books. And this will definitely not be the last – he's a really funny and interesting writer! He tells arcane facts in a humourous way, turning the history of science – normally a dry and boring topic – into an engaging read full of quirky characters and curious anecdotes.

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Holmes said on Jul 26, 2011 | Add your feedback

It was just real good.

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Jim Playford said on Jan 9, 2011 | Add your feedback

Simple, funny, understandable, interesting ... it's almost the Horrible Science for grown-ups!

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Chiara L'Onironauta said on Nov 10, 2010 | Add your feedback