A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Non-Fiction

478 pages

Trade Paperback

2003

I had read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson in the past and really enjoyed it. My wife had suggested reading this one as well and I finally got around to making it happen. I admit that the book didn't seem all that appealing, I was pleasantly surprised.

The book is really a study of the history of science. It starts by looking at who and how we discovered what we know about the universe. From there it starts to look at the earth and how it developed. Then it starts to look at things smaller than the eye can see. It starts to look at the development of life and eventually how we as humans are a part of all of that.

I was very engrossed with the beginning of the book. Bryson has a way of writing that is both easy to read, but also makes clear somewhat hard to understand ideas. He does this mostly through making comparisons, such as relating the size of our solar system to the map that hangs on every elementary classroom wall. If we were to really have it as displayed in the classroom the map would have to go on for miles.

I won't say I was surprised, but there is a tremendous amount of our scientific history that I knew very little about. I read with intense interest through the first 3 parts of the book. The scientific advances in understanding the atom. Making comparisons involving the molecule, cells, particles, and all the other tiny things that we can see really opened up my eyes, as it were.

The end of the book that focused on the evolution of life on earth and then focusing on human evolution was not quite as interesting, but maybe that was because I had a better understanding of this already.

5 Intellectual/Emotional - Unless you have a doctorate in scientific history I imagine there is something for you to learn from this book.

3 Style/Readability - Bryson ability to translate in layman's terms is a skill that is needed in a book like this. But I did start to lose interest towards the end.

2 Long Term Impact - I would hope that this will influence others writing about ideas, but I sort of doubt it will. That said I imagine he will influence those in the future and the information will always be worth a read even as time goes on and some of the ideas are proven wrong.

10 out of 13. I really didn't expect to like the book as much as I did. If you are looking for something that might educate you a bit this is a great place to start. I think anyone knowing what they are getting into would find this to be worthwhile.

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