A Short History Of Nearly Everything

By (author) Bryson, Bill
Short description/annotation:
The author describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can''t contain his curiosity about the world around him. This title is about his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us.
Description:

The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, A Short History of Nearly Everything is the biggest-selling popular science book of the 21st century and has sold over 2 million copies.

''Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.'' Economist
''Truly impressive...It''s hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.'' Guardian
''A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide'' The Times

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely 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 - 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. As a result, A Short History of Nearly Everything reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

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Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Impressive in his terse concreteness ... Hugely readable and never obfuscating
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This most enjoyable of books ... A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide
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Bill Bryson has an unmatched gift for explaining the most difficult subjects in the clearest possible way. If, like me, your brain tends to go numb when faced with terms like plate tectonics, genome, relativity theory, big bang and particle physics, then it is more than likely that A Short History of Nearly Everything is the cure you have always been looking for...It deserves to sell as many copies as there are protons contained in the full stop that ends this review (at least 500,000,000,000)
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Lucid, thoughtful and, above all, entertaining
Biographical note:

Bill Bryson wa