false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255682270m/21.jpg 21 54 From primordial nothingness to this very moment, <I>A Short History of Nearly Everything</I> reports what happened and how humans figured it out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson uses hundreds of sources,from popular science books to interviews with luminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him, who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations,to appreciate how we have used science to understand the smallest particles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space. With his distinctive prose style and wit, Bryson succeeds admirably. Though <I>A Short History</I> clocks in at a daunting 500-plus pages and covers the same material as every science book before it, it reads something like a particularly detailed novel (albeit without a plot). Each longish chapter is devoted to a topic like the age of our planet or how cells work, and these chapters are grouped into larger sections such as "The Size of the Earth" and "Life Itself." Bryson chats with experts like Richard Fortey (author of <I>Life</I> and <I>Trilobite</I>) and these interviews are charming. But it's when Bryson dives into some of science's best and most embarrassing fights--Cope vs. Marsh, Conway Morris vs. Gould--that he finds literary gold. 2305997 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything total:12780|5:5032|4:4885|3:2222|2:507|1:134| 12780 52514 20663 1974 5 23 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Oct 12 08:24:24 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 08:40:15 -0700 2007
Bryson's book combines the best qualities of science writers like Attenborough, Diamond, Durrell, and Wilson; presenting the information with the wit he is most known for. It is an amazing achievement to condense t...more...]]> 4 9 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 10:33:56 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 11:10:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 6 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 10:36:55 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 10:48:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 4 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 18:58:42 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 28 06:37:12 -0700 2007
Narrated by: Richard Matthews

Don’t let the 3 star rating mislead you. This was an awesome book and I’m certain others will think more highly of it. It is a great introduction for those not into the biography ...more...]]> 3 4 false false Sat Oct 06 15:54:53 -0700 2007 Thu Feb 26 15:31:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Jul 29 07:41:24 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 29 08:31:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 22 14:44:11 -0800 2008 Fri Jul 11 14:31:30 -0700 2008
His research is also wonderful and the facts, presented in this book, are not only interesting, but also startling, fascinating and stimulating. The ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 26 10:41:42 -0800 2008 Mon Jul 27 19:09:02 -0700 2009
I truly gave this book an honest effort, but at 2/3 of the way through I cannot continue. In all honesty, th...more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Apr 03 13:44:23 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 03 13:56:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Feb 17 15:31:43 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 13:00:42 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 13:24:18 -0800 2008 I really think you should read it.

I must admit that I'm somewhat biased; I was already a fan of Bryson's work, and I am generally interested in the sciences. Perhaps as a function of that, I believe this to be my favorite of his books (so far).

...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Nov 06 20:27:46 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 07 06:33:46 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 17 20:46:42 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 15 23:52:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat May 19 06:27:06 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 08 17:19:24 -0700 2007 My chemistry teacher gave me it to read a while back and it took me a while to get started on it, but after I did I couldn't put it down. You don't have to have a real pas...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Thu May 17 07:51:30 -0700 2007 Thu May 17 07:54:03 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun May 13 16:52:33 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 09:30:39 -0700 2007
I am a science geek. Not that I took a lot of science courses, but it's a source of fascination for me. There was a lot of stuff I already knew -- if you've read A Brief History of Time the first two chapters are a wash -- but there was ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Nov 19 14:25:22 -0800 2008 Wed Oct 01 09:13:52 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 19 14:25:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 16:22:09 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 22:33:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Nov 04 09:05:16 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 04 09:09:05 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri May 18 20:44:02 -0700 2007 Sun Mar 30 02:18:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Aug 18 10:28:20 -0700 2007 Sat Mar 15 06:40:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=21