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A Short History of Nearly Everything

By Bill Bryson

(289)

| Others | 9780552150729

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Book Description

Bill Bryson is one of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journey–into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. It’s a dazzling quest, the intellectual odysseyContinue

Bill Bryson is one of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journey–into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. It’s a dazzling quest, the intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably curious writer attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author puts it, “…how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since.” This is, in short, a tall order.

To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world’s most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemisty, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn’t some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out?

On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only this superb writer can render it. Science has never been more involving, and the world we inhabit has never been fuller of wonder and delight.

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

26 Reviews

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  • 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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.

    Is this helpful?

    Holmes said on Jul 26, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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