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Informative,
Boring,
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5 reviews

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

Published: 2004-09-14
Paperback : 544 pages
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7 clubs reading this now
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Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 5 members
One of the world’s most beloved writers and bestselling author of One Summer takes his ultimate journey—into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trailwell, most of it. In A Sunburned ...
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Introduction

One of the world’s most beloved writers and bestselling author of One Summer takes his ultimate journey—into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trailwell, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understandand, if possible, answerthe oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

Editorial Review

From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short History of Nearly Everything 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 A Short History 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 Life and Trilobite) 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. --Therese Littleton

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Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
  "Great book but dense"by Ashlie B. (see profile) 12/17/16

I loved the book and how he addressed the history of science. Most of my book club members agreed. Only thing to keep in mind it is a dense book so it is best for a time of year when people can dedicate... (read more)

 
by Julia G. (see profile) 12/16/16

 
  "More of an Individual Read instead of a Book Club Read"by Shelley S. (see profile) 02/02/10

I have never been a fan of science but this book made mind-bending theories easy to understand and relevant to the average person. I loved his tongue-in-cheek side comments through-out the book. Readers... (read more)

 
  "UGH, UGH, UGH!"by Vicki G. (see profile) 02/01/10

There was really nothing to discuss. I can see where some people would find the information interesting, but not a good pick for a discussion group.

 
  "Felt like reading a textbook."by Elena H. (see profile) 02/01/10

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