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Loading... A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)by Bill Bryson
  
Favourite Books (233) » 23 more Top Five Books of 2013 (317) Books Read in 2020 (717) Top Five Books of 2016 (771) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (64) Books Read in 2018 (884) 2000s decade (65) WNF (7) Pageturners (24) Books Read in 2005 (35) Books Read in 2011 (50) Books I've read (57) Books on my Kindle (140) Biggest Disappointments (464) Favorite Long Books (282) No current Talk conversations about this book. This was a fun treatment of a difficult subject: the background behind scientific knowledge in, well, basically every field. When you think about it, science has an interesting relationship to our species. For one, the whole enterprise is essentially based around telling us that things we thought were true for good reasons are actually lies; it can actually increase our ignorance rather than our knowledge. For another, the rules of the scientific method that you have to follow to make a legitimate discovery use logical processes that are very new to our brains, probably within the last few thousand years. And finally, even learning about it is difficult, since humans are programmed to respond to narratives that are simply not present in physical laws; everyone who learns advanced math has to train themselves to accept abstract knowledge without the benefit of the interpersonal stories that form the rest of their relationship to the world. Bryson, who wrote this book after realizing that he had absorbed almost nothing from his formal science education, tries to place stories and fun back into science and does a great job of relating the connections between concepts and the people who discovered them without pandering to the audience or getting too tabloidish. This is absolutely not a replacement for actually knowing anything about science, but it does make you appreciate how little we know about the world and the contributions scientists have made. (  ) aaronarnold | May 11, 2021 |  **12.28.18 - I listened to the audiobook version and it was great! I enjoyed the book all over again. I forget how funny Bill can be and how he can make dry subjects sound interesting. Highly recommended!** A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is an educational science book in which Bill touches upon a little bit of...well...everything! We are offered a glimpse into the workings and history from a smorgasbord of topics such as the theory of the big bang, the quirky workings of quantum physics, the explosive history of volcanoes, world-destroying asteroids, the climate and conditions of the primordial earth and an innumerable amount of other topics. I enjoy Bryson's writing style. He speaks on topics in a way that exudes interest and excitement and there is always humor involved and he does a great job at keeping the reader engaged and interested. There are parts in the book, however, that were a bit underwhelming. Bryson tends to go into detail about the biography of the different scientists that made their discoveries and I found that I wanted to get through those pages quickly so that I could continue learning about the topic on hand. This was my first book that reignited my love for literature. I had gone without reading a book for a couple of years and this was the one I picked up when I decided to scratch that itch. The book is a thick one (about 544 pages) so when it arrived in the mail I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew however I was instantly drawn in and I am fan of Bryson's work! ( ) ProfessorEX | Apr 15, 2021 | Nothing but fun and facts. Bryson reveals not only the history of the earth and universe, but most strikingly the history of humankind's struggle to do so. (  ) fruitsaladd | Apr 10, 2021 | I listened to this as an audiobook and the writer's style really worked well for that format. The writing reminded me very much of Douglas Adams, coupled with a narrator that reminded me of the narrator from the Hitchhikers Guide BBC series -- just made it very fun. Although the title is "A Short History of Nearly Everything", it's really only covers our history from a scientific perspective, describing how we got here. The book covers astrophysics, geology and evolution but if you're looking for more traditional history and politics, then this is not the book for you. For most people who already have an interest in the subject, there will be little that is newly revealed in this book. However as light summer reading, refresher material or an audiobook that plays while you cook dinner, it's highly entertaining. ( ) northwestknitter | Mar 28, 2021 | Wide-ranging narratives, explanations, history, entertaining anecdotes about natural phenomena & physical sciences; very enjoyable throughout! ( ) JosephKing6602 | Mar 8, 2021 |
 The more I read of ''A Short History of Nearly Everything,'' the more I was convinced that Bryson had achieved exactly what he'd set out to do, and, moreover, that he'd done it in stylish, efficient, colloquial and stunningly accurate prose. "Una breve historia de casi todo" explica como ha evolucionado el mundo para acabar siendo lo que es hoy. Explica cualquier aspecto de nuestro universo, desde el más recóndito al más conocido. The book's underlying strength lies in the fact that Bryson knows what it's like to find science dull or inscrutable. Unlike scientists who turn their hand to popular writing, he can claim to have spent the vast majority of his life to date knowing very little about how the universe works. Belongs to Publisher Series
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