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A Short History of Nearly ­Everything
Bryson

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404,735 Ratings by Goodreads |
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Format
Paperback, 672 pages
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Paperback : $22.67

Published
UK, 1 June 2004

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. He looks at how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums such as how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about t


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Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. He looks at how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums such as how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about t

Product Details
EAN
9780552997041
ISBN
0552997048
Age Range
Dimensions
12.7 x 3.3 x 19.8 centimetres (0.33 kg)

Promotional Information

The incomparable Bill Bryson travels through time and space to introduce us to the world, the universe and everything in this groundbreaking bestseller.

About the Author

Bill Bryson is much loved for his bestselling travel books, from The Lost Continent to Down Under, but Notes from a Small Island has earned a particularly special place in the nation's heart (a national poll for World Book Day in 2003 voted it the book that best represents Britain). His acclaimed A Short History of Nearly Everything won the Aventis Prize for Science Books and the Descartes Science Communication Prize. He has now returned to live in the UK with his wife and family. www.billbryson.co.uk

Reviews

"Mr Bryson has a natural gift for clear and vivid expression. I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written" Sunday Telegraph "A fascinating idea, and I can't think of many writers, other than Bryson, who would do it this well. It's the sort of book I would have devoured as a teenager. It might well turn unsuspecting young readers into scientists. And the famous, slightly cynical humour is always there" Evening Standard "A genuinely useful and readable book. There is a phenomenal amount of fascinating information packed between its covers ... A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again" Daily Express "Of course, there are people much better qualified than Bill Bryson to attempt a project of this magnitude. None of them, however, can write fluent Brysonese, which, as pretty much the entire Western reading public now knows, is an appealing mixture of self-deprecation, wryness and punnery" Spectator "The very book I have been looking for most of my life... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes" Daily Mail

Gr 5-9-An illustrated adaptation/abridgment of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, (Broadway, 2003), this treatment addresses the same set of sprawling questions as the original. Among them: How and when was the universe born and how vast might it now be? How old is the Earth and how much does it weigh? Why did the dawn of life happen to emerge here, of all places, and how could lowly microbes possibly be the primitive precursors of a species as complex as Homo sapiens? These are weighty questions for readers of any age to grapple with, but Bryson lightens the load by skillfully scaffolding the concepts he presents. Each topic is concisely addressed in the author's breezy Brit voice, explaining exactly what we know and how we came to know it. Photographs, cartoon sidebars, humorous anecdotes, and frequent recaps entertain and reinforce understanding along the journey. Ultimately, all of the ideas come together to give readers a wide-angle perspective on what a wildly improbable privilege it is to be a member of a species that the author says is "perhaps, the universe's supreme achievement." Bryson wraps up by suggesting that since we seem to be both "the best there is" and the only species capable of deciding our planet's future, we humans should redouble our efforts at being good stewards of the Earth. A highly recommended piece of popular science that succeeds largely because-as he nears age 60-there's clearly still a curious kid living in Bryson's head.-Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

As the title suggests, bestselling author Bryson (In a Sunburned Country) sets out to put his irrepressible stamp on all things under the sun. As he states at the outset, this is a book about life, the universe and everything, from the Big Bang to the ascendancy of Homo sapiens. "This is a book about how it happened," the author writes. "In particular 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." What follows is a brick of a volume summarizing moments both great and curious in the history of science, covering already well-trod territory in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, chemistry, physics and so on. Bryson relies on some of the best material in the history of science to have come out in recent years. This is great for Bryson fans, who can encounter this material in its barest essence with the bonus of having it served up in Bryson's distinctive voice. But readers in the field will already have studied this information more in-depth in the originals and may find themselves questioning the point of a breakneck tour of the sciences that contributes nothing novel. Nevertheless, to read Bryson is to travel with a memoirist gifted with wry observation and keen insight that shed new light on things we mistake for commonplace. To accompany the author as he travels with the likes of Charles Darwin on the Beagle, Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton is a trip worth taking for most readers. First printing 110,000; 11-city author tour. (On sale May 6) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"Mr Bryson has a natural gift for clear and vivid expression. I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written" Sunday Telegraph "A fascinating idea, and I can't think of many writers, other than Bryson, who would do it this well. It's the sort of book I would have devoured as a teenager. It might well turn unsuspecting young readers into scientists. And the famous, slightly cynical humour is always there" Evening Standard "A genuinely useful and readable book. There is a phenomenal amount of fascinating information packed between its covers ... A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again" Daily Express "Of course, there are people much better qualified than Bill Bryson to attempt a project of this magnitude. None of them, however, can write fluent Brysonese, which, as pretty much the entire Western reading public now knows, is an appealing mixture of self-deprecation, wryness and punnery" Spectator "The very book I have been looking for most of my life... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes" Daily Mail

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4.22 out of 5 | From 404,735 Goodreads Ratings

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By Kieran on February 15, 2006
An epic story of the history of the universe, starting from the beginning of the clock. This fascinating story tells of the history of the universe as we know it, through the discoveries of the scientists who tell us, as best as we can know at this time, how we got to here we are, from the cosmic microwave background radiation, to the formation of the galaxies, stars, planets, and then the first life as it evolved all the way up to us. An absolutely brilliant book for anyone who wants to learn who we are.
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By John on May 26, 2014
A really good read for those who want to know.
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By Simon on July 27, 2008
I read this book with a scant knowledge of nearly everything and at the end I was enlightened and entertained by Byson's excellent book. It really makes you think of not only how we got to be where we are today in, largely the world of science, but our very existence. When trying to comprehend the size of an atom the size of the universe, Bryson makes the old mind tick over and the great thing is that it is written so we can all understand the little things like particle physics and quantum mechanics!! Full of interesting characters too, a great read, thoroughly recommended for anyone!!
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By Rainer on July 15, 2008
Bill Bryson's books are always a treat. His previous efforts have shown him to be a man of wit and consistency, and I've never encountered a book written by him that could be described as anything but thoroughly entertaining. Bryson does not disappoint with A Short History.., taking readers on an oft hilarious and thought provoking jaunt through time. His explanations and insights are deep and interesting, and go well beyond the dry language of normal history books. Any science book can tell you that we're made up of eleventy billion atoms, but Bryson manages to give these numbers some meaning. A great effort, and a great read.
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