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| A Short History of Nearly Everything | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £0.99
You Save: £9.00 (90%)
New (38) from £4.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  210 reviews
Sales Rank: 225
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 686
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0552997048
Dewey Decimal Number: 600
EAN: 9780552997041
ASIN: 0552997048
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Great condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Compelling July 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've just borrowed this book from my local library on cassette, and can't bear to let it go back without owning it! Bryson's usual humorous, articulate style of writing has won me over yet again. Some might call it "dumbing down", I think it's no crime to have such a wonderful talent for explaining the unimaginable, and Bryson makes all that science stuff accessible and understandable (no mean feat where my arty brain is concerned!)
Once again Amazon's amazing price means that I can add a true classic to my ever growing audio cd collection. Thank you Amazon!
 Good... June 24, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
...and moves along at a good pace keeping the readers attention. However ditch this and read Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" first, it's the daddy and still timeless.
A few points May 22, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This isn't really a proper review of the book as there are loads already on Amazon, but just a few points that struck me:
a) Why does Bryson use kilometres as opposed to miles? American and English readers know miles and they're presumably the near exclusive readership? It's really annoying constantly having to recalcuate when he says things like 'the earth's core is 600 kilometres from the surface'.
b) I'm aware that there is an edition of this book with sketches and diagrams, and boy does it need them. This edition badly misses them - they're pretty much essential for what he talks about.
c) There's a little too much about the scientists rather than what they discovered. This is typical Bryson - he loves to relate details of eccentric people, but here I found myself wishing he'd concentrate on the science eg how cells and organisms clustered together to create life, rather than a professor who rode everywhere on his bike naked etc.
d) By the end I still didn't feel I really knew how we'd got here. This probably isn't Bryson's fault as there's so much we don't know, but maybe more of what I say in c) would have helped?
e) This is worth reading if you have a vague interest in science. If you're religious you'll probably want to look away because the reality will be far too much for you to take.
Compulsive reading April 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I used to know a Deputy Head whose only memorable assembly was full of amazing facts about the universe. (Hi, Mr Green. Hope you're well.) Luckily, we got to hear this assembly roughly once a year and, even more astonishing than the amazing facts, each time was as riveting as the last. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything has the same kind of effect but magnified by about ten. It's compulsive.
As a great communicator, Bryson makes science accessible and entertaining, and he never misses a chance to bring the human factor into play. Like the oddball geologist, Reverend William Buckland, who attempted to eat his way through the world's fauna. (Apparently, everything but the common garden mole has some gastonomic merit.) Or the Strathclyde University caretaker, James Croll, who spent more time in the library studying physics, mechanics, astronomy and hydrostatics than caretaking, eventually publishing a paper on the effects of the Earth's motion on climatic change, and becoming a member of the Royal Society as a consequence.
Bryson being Bryson, there's no want of wit. Space is 'spacious'. Humphry Davy, discoverer of a string of elements, was 'serially astute'. One liners abound: 'Geologists are never at a loss for paperweights.' 'Zinc - bless it - oxidises alcohol.' Quoting from a New York Times 'simplified' guide to the mind-bogglingly complicated world of sub-atomic physics, he writes: 'No arguing with that. No understanding it either.' What's more, the book is occasionally hilarious when simply relating the history of science: The NYT (again), for its 1919 interview with Albert Einstein, sent its stupefied golf correspondent!
This often awe-inspiring book, touching on profound mysteries of the universe, leaves you with the realisation that key branches of science, especially quantum physics and molecular biology, are getting impossibly complex. Even more mundane things like ice ages and human descent are currently well beyond us, and the idea that we will eventually understand all there is to know about everything looks wildly optimistic. Nevertheless, this is a great story told with relish. Quite simply, Bryson's 'science book' is wonderful, lucid, informative and life-enhancing stuff that's sometimes gripping and sometimes funny. One reading will not be enough.
Fascinating April 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you want to learn science through a light-hearted lens, this is a fascinating combination of the history of everything and the story of the people involved in discovering the history of everything. After living in Britain for twenty or more years, Bryson has developed that a particularly wry humour to bring historical stories to life by highlighting the ludicrous and the mundane. Who would have guessed that Edmond Halley was rewarded by the Royal Society, not with salary, but with copies of their poorly selling "The History of Fishes". Priceless.
With Bryson's background in travel writing, you won't be disappointed with this journey, combining the chronological story of the earth with the history of dicovery and the potential threats in the future. From quarks to continental drift, Bryson explores where these theories have come from, how they are initially ridiculed, and where they are heading today. A magnificent writing that brings to life the bits we found boring at school.
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