A Short History of Nearly Everything |
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by: Bill Bryson List Price: $27.50 Price: $21.02 You Save: $6.48 (24%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 500 Edition: 1 Format: Bargain Price Label: Broadway Manufacturer: Broadway Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 560 Publication Date: May 06, 2003 Publisher: Broadway Release Date: May 06, 2003 Studio: Broadway Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.com 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 Product Description: Bill Bryson is one of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journey–into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. It’s a dazzling quest, the intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably curious writer attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author puts it, “…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.” This is, in short, a tall order. To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world’s most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemisty, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn’t some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only this superb writer can render it. Science has never been more involving, and the world we inhabit has never been fuller of wonder and delight. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - What Textbooks Don't Teach (at least not well)Bill Bryson is best known for books like, "Notes From a Small Island" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself", deftly comic travel memoirs that highlight Bryson's experiences living in England and America. So "A Short History of Nearly Everything" may seem like a surprise from such an author, for it is a book about science, the hows and whys of the universe. What Bryson has admirably done is make some of the most difficult scientific theories and discoveries entirely readable and relatable to non-scientific minds. "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is just that - a scientific history of nearly everything that science has studied during our existence on Earth and even before that. Bryson leaves no stone unturned, beginning with how the universe was formed, to what can be known about our home planet, to atoms and cells, and finally to animal and human life. It is a lot of territory to cover, even in a book that is nearly 500 pages long. Bryson devotes a chapter to each segment and fills in the background information on all of the theories that have existed, how they came to be, and what scientists believe they know now. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is the attention paid to the fact that those who are known for many of the great scientific discoveries are not the ones who actually made them. As Bryson put it, quoting von Humboldt, "...there are three stages in scientific discovery: first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person" (421). It is obvious that Bryson did his research for this tome and that he himself takes an inordinate amount of pleasure in and wonder at what science has accomplished, and also what scientists have not been able to figure out. Even for those who may not agree with every facet of evolution, it would still be an illuminating read to know just why and how scientists have come to the current conclusions. For fans of Bryson's other works, the author has peppered all this science with his unusual humor, which adds to comparisons that make it easier for non-scientific minds to understand. It is hard to walk away from "A Short History of Nearly Everything" without having learned something and without having some of the same questions that started Bryson's quest in the first place. Rating:  - A Short History of Nearly Everything You Didn't Want To KnowBill Bryson is the quintessintial American writer and pretty much he touches, turns to Gold. But not on this book. I felt as if he spent more time providing a history of *individuals* responsible for the discovery of different things throughout history. Where they were born, what they ate, who they talked to, and what they worked on. Interesting to some, but not to me. What's worse, is that I really didn't learn anything about History! Probably becaue I didn't finish the book.... Rating:  - Excellent read!This book was a good review of a lot of things I learned, but forgotten. It was actually not painful to read about science because the author has lots of anecdotes. Some people are peeved by these side stories about the scientists, but I really enjoy them. Makes the scientist an actual person! I highly recommend this! Rating: - Bill Bryson's Short HistoryI like this book so much it has become a staple present for all sorts of occasions. (Aside: if you get the audio version, opt for Bryson's reading - he is one of the best readers I have heard on audio books.) You can read it all at once, or just dip in for short sessions. He makes potentially dull facts fascinating with his command of language and narrative. The seller filled the order in the time window promised, and there were no problems with delivery. Rating: - Awesomely entertaining and informativeThis book is just downright entertaining, as well as dreadfully frightening. When you get to the parts about the fragility of the Earth's life-sustaining environment, the apparent inevitability of a catastrophic asteroid collision, or the imminent threat of a super-volcano eruption in a place like Yellowstone National Park, you may wonder if there is anywhere on Earth to safely relocate your family. But Bryson's dry humor and gift for finding and articulating irony had me chuckling out loud every time I sat down to read a chapter or two. He puts a very human (sometimes deflatingly human) face on the amazing advances of the scientific enterprise. The book is also very dense with "history class" type factual information (names, dates, places) that, while flowingly presented in the captivating narrative of a storytelling, are still difficult details to recall just a few hours after reading. Overall, this is a great read, and highly recommended to anyone who ever wished - even secretly - that they understood more about the physical universe, or especially for anyone who wonders about the legitimacy of science as a process for revealing truths. Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display |
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