A Short History of Nearly Everything by American author Bill Bryson is a popular science book that explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies.
A Short History deviates from Bryson's popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology.
Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge—that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in …
A Short History of Nearly Everything by American author Bill Bryson is a popular science book that explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies.
A Short History deviates from Bryson's popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology.
Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge—that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens.
Review of 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Wow what a delightful book this is. There was almost nothing here I didn't already know, more or less. But it was all presented in such a well integrated and beautiful way that it was a joy to read. I’m a big Bryson fan and this has been on my list a long time. I’m so glad I finally got to it.
Wow what a delightful book this is. There was almost nothing here I didn't already know, more or less. But it was all presented in such a well integrated and beautiful way that it was a joy to read. I’m a big Bryson fan and this has been on my list a long time. I’m so glad I finally got to it.
Review of 'Een kleine geschiedenis van bijna alles' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Interestin and well-written overview, but sometimes it relies too much on the reader's knowledge of the geography of the USA, which can be tricky for people from other countries. The Dutch translation is also a bit weird at times, a good editor would certainly have helped.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
"Geologists are never at a loss for paperweights.”
A wide ranging lesson on the natural sciences and their pioneers. It can be lengthy, brief, funny, boring, interesting, tedious, and enjoyable at any moment. Instead of remembering a lot of specific facts, I finished with a better understanding of how science makes progress. Hearing the stories of so many scientists you realize how controversial, competitive, and petty the fields can be. Time and place were huge factors as well, as Bryson summed up: "Ocean rocks lasted only as long as it took them to travel ashore. It was a beautiful theory that explained a great deal. Hesse elaborated his ideas in an important paper, which was almost universally ignored. Sometimes the world just isn’t ready for a good idea."
This was read in anticipation for Bryson’s new book on the body. He does massive amounts of research and is able to …
"Geologists are never at a loss for paperweights.”
A wide ranging lesson on the natural sciences and their pioneers. It can be lengthy, brief, funny, boring, interesting, tedious, and enjoyable at any moment. Instead of remembering a lot of specific facts, I finished with a better understanding of how science makes progress. Hearing the stories of so many scientists you realize how controversial, competitive, and petty the fields can be. Time and place were huge factors as well, as Bryson summed up: "Ocean rocks lasted only as long as it took them to travel ashore. It was a beautiful theory that explained a great deal. Hesse elaborated his ideas in an important paper, which was almost universally ignored. Sometimes the world just isn’t ready for a good idea."
This was read in anticipation for Bryson’s new book on the body. He does massive amounts of research and is able to share it in an enjoyable way. It’s just difficult to keep readers interested through the ranging topics of quarks, ocean floors, the naming of plants, and Darwin’s personal life.
A passage that sums up the book well: “If you’ve forgotten what an isotope is, it doesn’t matter, though for the record it’s an atom with an abnormal number of neutrons."
Audiobook: the narrator was excellent. He’s very engaged and has a natural cadence and tone. It really helps the book along.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A slightly more accurate title for this book would have been "A Short History of Many Fields of Science". When I originally got this book, I thought it was going to be more about things like ancient Egypt and the Roman empire. Instead it talked about things like the history of chemistry and geology. Really interesting stuff, just not what I expected. One surprising thing about the book was how quickly some of the information was. For instance, there was a whole section on the "planet" Pluto. Overall I would recommend the book, especially as a book that you can quickly pick up whenever you have a few moments to read.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Dobra książka na prezent - dla osób niekoniecznie już wiedzących co nieco więcej o nauce. Autor ma bardzo lekkie pióro - pisze świetnie i z humorem. Książka zaczyna się od fizyki, potem przez geologię trafiamy do biologii, antropologii. Naukę poznajemy nie poprzez czyste zjawiska, ale raczej poprzez naukowców, którzy je odkryli. W książce opisane są również spotkania autora z obecnie żyjącymi naukowcami. Także i ja, osoba dość zapoznana z popularnonaukowymi recenzjami, dowiedziałem się paru ciekawostek.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition by Bill Bryson (2005), a good read on our history in the universe and our understanding (or lack of) how we got here.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
It's a really good book. Even though I have learnt most of the stories the book presents, I've never put them together and think so deeply. The simplest of the physics and chemistry are the most beautiful things to me. Great human!
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Disguised as a book about science, this is actually a book about people attempting to make sense of the universe while fighting among themselves. Having gone to school several decades earlier, I now know that much of what I learned, facts that they were so sure of at the time, turned out to be wrong or incomplete or simply the fashion of the time. And even those facts which didn't change were explained to me in the wrong way so as to give me the impression that I understood when I actually didn't. I now feel simultaneously smarter and stupider and have more of a sense of wonder.
Review of 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I spent quite a lot of time reading it, because I left it around the middle to read something else, that something else transformed into 4 books of something else, and one thing led to another, and, and, and.
Maybe this should be called "A short prehistory of nearly everything", because it goes from the Big Bang to the history of humans up to Homo Sapiens, essentially. My take away message from that book was that the world is fucking weird. And incredibly fascinating. Bryson discusses all of his subjects (the universe, the planet, water, life, etc.) in a conversational, often giggle-inducing style; I had the feeling that the whole thing may not be very scientifically/historically accurate at times, but overall I think it's a very nice pop science book (in the good sense of the term). I stopped reading a few times thinking "no way, he's trolling me, he's …
I spent quite a lot of time reading it, because I left it around the middle to read something else, that something else transformed into 4 books of something else, and one thing led to another, and, and, and.
Maybe this should be called "A short prehistory of nearly everything", because it goes from the Big Bang to the history of humans up to Homo Sapiens, essentially. My take away message from that book was that the world is fucking weird. And incredibly fascinating. Bryson discusses all of his subjects (the universe, the planet, water, life, etc.) in a conversational, often giggle-inducing style; I had the feeling that the whole thing may not be very scientifically/historically accurate at times, but overall I think it's a very nice pop science book (in the good sense of the term). I stopped reading a few times thinking "no way, he's trolling me, he's inventing stuff" - but apparently... no. Not in the things that sounded completely incredible to me anyway. What I really loved about that book is that it's not only a story of what happened, but also a story of the scientific process that allowed us to conceive things as they are. I was pretty shocked to see that a number of things that I have learnt in school as established facts are often way less clear-cut that I've been told (or that I remember having been told, but... I'll never know), and that most of this was actually fairly, if not very recent. Again, I'm not sure if this is something that we weren't told in school, or if it's something that I didn't remember (possibly because 1950-60 seemed probably more distant to 10-year-old me than to 30-old-me, paradoxically), but I found this fascinating - almost as fascinating as the extent of my scientific history inculture :P (And I'd consider myself a science person.) Anyway, I enjoyed that book a lot. It dragged a bit at some points, but maybe I was just getting tired ;) but all in all, a great book, highly recommended.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a great book. I wish more science teachers read this and took into consideration how powerful a big picture narrative can be when it combines the advances of science with the whimsical human history that lies behind it.
Review of 'A short history of nearly everything' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A good general overview of the history of the discoveries of our planet. Having read other works of primary sources that covered some of this book's subject matter, I found that the information and/or intonation can, at times, be troublingly dubious, but it does have a great narrative, and I recommend it if you're interested in a quick overview of the history of earth's sciences.
