The knocks on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything essentially come from two camps; those who are well versed in science and feel this treatment lacks any substantial depth or detail, and those whose interest in science is so nominal that they feel put upon by the overwhelming and substantial depth and detail. Such is the lot of authors who set out to bring complex disciplines to wider audiences (*see also Astrophysics For People In a Hurry). Speaking only for myself, this was right in my wheelhouse.

I now know a bit more about paleontology, geology, chemistry, astronomy and particle physics than I knew a few days ago, and I'm more than satisfied with the attention & treatment Bryson gives to my science of choice, physical anthropology. Light reading this is not, but you don't need a PhD to comprehend what Bill B is laying down, just a curious mind and a comfortable chair.

I know virtually nothing about science, so it was with some trepidation that I began reading this introduction to life, the universe and everything, which deals with questions such as "How did the universe originate?" and "How much does planet Earth weigh?". I ended up enjoying the hell out of it, as Bryson's writing style is so witty and accessible that it frequently made me laugh out loud. He has a knack of telling you not just about major developments in the history of the universe, but also about the scientists who made the discoveries he describes, who were frequently larger-than-life characters leading very tragic lives. To be honest, I enjoyed the asides on the scientists more than the science itself, but that didn't stop me enjoying reading all the bits about the Big Bang, early life forms and quarks. It also gave me an understanding of how random and unpredictable life really is, and how little mutations can lead to massive changes. Impressive stuff.

First off, this is a huge departure from Bryson's breezy, excellent travel logs. Secondly, this book should be read with some frequency. It is so densely packed with valuable insight, and sound bites of discovery that you could not possibly absorb it all with one pass. This is my second time reading it and I plan on doing it again next year. The organizational structure is a wonderful series of loosely connected cameos covering several essential and enlightened discoveries of man. As an added bonus, the book actually attempts to pay off on the cheeky title. Bryson's light, common man’s writing style “scats” from universal, to global, to biological with a loosely constructed cause and effect outline. His books (thankfully, including this one) are all peppered with wit and charm and a heavy snatch of sarcasm. Further and maybe more importantly, he has the good sense to skip over heavy deep dives into mathematics, theories or anything at an ivy graduate level. I love this guy. I feel like he wrote this book for me and I hope he writes 10 more just like this. 10/4/07

I abhor cliches, but in honor of Bryson's incredible achievement I'll indulge in one. I might very well choose "A Short History" as the ONE book I'd choose over all others ...if ...I was stranded on the proverbial desert island. Bryson has created a true encyclopedic kaleidoscope. Imagine the fun he had writing this book as he allowed his mind to logically wormhole through and across time!

I must admit that science is not my strong suit -- I've always been more of a Humanities gal. In high school, I had to work harder in my biology and chemistry classes, whereas English, history and social studies always came more easily to me.

Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a good overview of all the science classes I didn't take (or don't remember) in college. It's like Intro to Physics, Chemistry, Geology and Astronomy all in one wonderfully droll book. Since I read very few books about science, this was an enjoyable departure for me.

Here is how the book begins: "Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize. To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and curiously obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, co-operative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience this supremely agreeable but generally under-appreciated state known as existence."

Some of my favorite sections were about the Big Bang, the debate about the age of the universe, plate tectonics, Darwin's research, and the extinction of different species. After sharing various stories of how humans have killed off who-knows-how-many species, Bryson interjects: "I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job." Sadly true, but also worth a HA!

I listened to this on CD read by the author, and if you've been following my reviews for a while, you'll know that I have a brain crush on Bryson and his narration. Seriously, I wish I could invite him over for tea and scones and just listen to him read all afternoon. (Bryson is from my home state of Iowa, but he's lived in England for so long that he's adopted a charming accent. It's adorable.) I was also able to look through a copy of the special illustrated edition, which includes dozens of photographs and prints. If you can find it, I highly recommend reading the illustrated edition.

"A Short History" was first published in 2003, and at the time, it was a big change from Bryson's previous travelogues. Since then, Bryson seems to have abandoned travel books and has been writing on different topics in history, such as the wonderful "At Home", "Shakespeare" and "One Summer: America 1927." While I enjoy his wry, humorous takes on history, I do miss his travel writing. If you're reading this, Bryson, please, take a trip somewhere. Have an adventure. Jot down a few notes and write another whip-smart travel book. Your fans will love it.

Extremely tedious, highly overrated and the title is completely misleading. As a lover of history, a student of history and an avid reader of historical non-fiction I have a strong preference for information taking precedent over the history of the people who discovered that information. Seriously, I couldn't care less about the first five Brits who tried to make a go of it discovering dinosaur bones - just tell me about the damn bones. Bill Bryson doesn't so much write "about" science as he writes "around" it. I've never read a book about science with... so little science. A more appropriate title for this book would have been "A Long Winded and Tedious History of Mostly Apocryphal Stories About Great Scientists." But perhaps that was too long to fit onto the cover? Bryson packs more information about these scientists' love lives and professional squabbles into the book than he does anything of educational value. It is clear that an immense amount of research went into this; it is also clear that not nearly enough thought was given to communicating the themes and ideas he wanted to. Most every topic was glanced over sparingly, described with weak and inapt analogy, and left behind leaving me to wonder if that's really the best he thought he could do.

If you like science and geology and astronomy and all those other boring (to me) subjects, you'll be mesmerized. But those were never my thing so I had the speed turned up pretty high on the audio just to get to the end. It was pretty dense, and I'm no less dense now for muddling through it.

Battaglia per la Terra

Sono sempre stato convinto che non sia necessario utilizzare tante parole complicate per illustrare concetti complessi a chi non li conosce. Bisogna solo comprenderli bene prima di accingersi a spiegarli.
Ecco, Bill Bryson è uno che non solo ha capito bene i fenomeni che spiega, ma ha anche capito come comunicarceli efficacemente.
Con ironia, con aneddoti interessanti, con la capacità di sottolineare le cose più curiose e che destano curiosità riesce, in un libro che tutto è fuorché "breve", a coinvolgere nonostante i contenuti scientifici e spesso ostici.

Nozioni e concetti di alto livello ma comprensibili anche a chi non ha specifiche conoscenze scientifiche, che siano ragazzi o adulti, non importa.

E raccontando la scienza, come fosse davanti al camino davanti ai nipotini in ascolto, riesce a parlarci di atomi, di neutrini, della storia della Terra, di dinosauri, di glaciazioni, di tettonica, di vulcanologia, di evoluzione, di Darwin, di chimica, di biologia, di geologia, di terremoti e di stelle.

Semplice, chiaro, pratico, divertente. Concetti e fenomeni che avevo visto, ascoltato e letto tante volte, ma che rivisti tutti insieme prendono vita e luce nuova.

E c'è pure una morale, nel libro (sempre a caccia di messaggi e morali, io...). La vita dell'umanità come la conosciamo noi, se rapportata alla vita della Terra, ha una durata praticamente inesistente.

"Se immaginiamo di comprimere i quattromilacinquecento milioni di anni di storia della Terra in un normale giornata di 24 ore, la vita compare molto presto, intorno alle quattro del mattino, con l'emergere dei primi semplici organismi unicellulari. Poi, però, non fa altri progressi per le sedici ore successive. Fino alle otto e mezzo di sera la Terra non può mostrare all'universo che un'irrequieta pellicola di microbi. Poi, finalmente, compaiono le prime piante marine seguite, venti minuti dopo, dalle prime meduse e dall'enigmatica fauna di Ediacara scoperta da Reginald Sprigg in Australia. Alle nove e quattro minuti, i trilobiti irrompono sulla scena seguiti più o meno immediatamente dalle eleganti creature degli scisti di Burgess. Appena prima delle dieci, dal terreno cominciano a spuntare le piante. Subito dopo, quando rimangono solo due ore, compaiono le prime creature terrestri.
Grazie a una decina di minuti caratterizzati da un clima mite, alle dieci e ventiquattro la Terra è coperta dalle grandi foreste del Carbonifero dai cui residui deriva tutto il nostro carbone, e sono evidenti i primi insetti alati. I dinosauri arrancano sul palcoscenico un po' prima delle undici e tengono banco per circa tre quarti d'ora. Quando mancano ventuno minuti alla mezzanotte, si estinguono e comincia l'era dei mammiferi. Gli esseri umani compaiono un minuto e 17 secondi prima della mezzanotte. Su questa scala, tutta la nostra storia non coprirebbe che qualche secondo. Una vita umana, forse, neanche un istante."

Ebbene, in questo "brevissimo" periodo "magico" di vita (il famoso minuto e 17 secondi...) ci stiamo impegnando molto a distruggere tutto, con lo sfruttamento delle risorse, con l'inquinamento, con l'uso sconsiderato di prodotti nocivi.
Dobbiamo cercare di cambiare atteggiamento nei riguardi del nostro pianeta, cercando di conoscerlo (e il libro serve anche a quello) e di salvaguardarlo. Se non proprio per noi, almeno per i nostri discendenti.

বইটার নামকরণের সার্থকতা আছে, "প্রায় সবকিছুর সংক্ষিপ্ত ইতিহাস"-ই বটে।

তবে এখানে কিন্তু মেসোপোটেমিয়া বা মিসরীয় সভ্যতার ইতিহাস লেখা নেই। নেই ব্রিটিশ সাম্রাজ্য বা দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের ইতিহাসও।
বিল ব্রাইসন বলেছেন মহাবিশ্বের ইতিহাস, বিজ্ঞানের অগ্রগতির ইতিহাস, বিস্ময়কর আবিষ্কারের ইতিহাস, অজানা রহস্যের গল্প এবং এর নেপথ্যে থাকা বিজ্ঞানীদের গল্প।

জ্যোতির্বিজ্ঞান, পদার্থবিজ্ঞান, ভূতত্ত্ব, রসায়ন, জীববিজ্ঞান, প্রাণিবিজ্ঞান, অণুজীববিজ্ঞান, বিবর্তনবাদ, ফসিলবিজ্ঞান প্রায় সবকিছু নিয়েই লেখক আলোচনা করেছেন। অবশ্য উদ্ভিদ নিয়ে আলাপটা কম হয়েছে।

বইটা বেশ সহজবোধ্য ভাষায় লেখা। কিন্তু বইয়ের পাতায় পাতায় এত এত ইনফরমেশন আছে যে মাথা ভারি হয়ে যায়।

কিছু কিছু অংশ পড়ার সময় হয়তো মনোযোগ হারিয়েছি, তখন ভেবেছি কিছু কি মিস করলাম? এই অংশটা কি আরেকবার পড়া উচিত?
এই ভেবে কখনও রি-রিড করেছি। আবার কখনও মনে হয়েছে যা জানলাম তাতেই চলবে, আর জানতে চাইছি না।


এবার একটা নেতিবাচক পয়েন্ট বলি।
চমৎকার সব ছবির আছে বইটিতে। কিন্তু ছবির সমাবেশ আরও দক্ষতার সাথে করা যেত। তথ্য-উপাত্ত বর্ণনার জন্য কিছু ডায়াগ্রাম, গ্রাফ, চার্ট ব্যবহার করলে ভালো হতো। যেমন বায়ুমন্ডলের স্তরের চিত্র, ভূত্বকের স্তরের চিত্র ইত্যাদি। এছাড়া বিজ্ঞানের বইয়ের ক্ষেত্রে পরমাণুর গঠনের চিত্র, জীবকোষ ও জীবকোষীয় অঙ্গাণুর চিহ্নিত চিত্র (কোষ নিয়ে একটা অধ্যায় থাকবে অথচ কোষের একটা ছবি থাকবে না?, কোষ যিনি আবিস্কার করেছেন তাঁর ছবির চেয়ে কোষের ছবি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ) , ডিএনএ, আরএনএর গঠনের চিত্র না থাকলেই নয়।

বইটা পড়ার সাথে কার্ল সেগান, ডেভিড অ্যাটেনবোরো, নিল ডিগ্রাস টাইসনের ডকুমেন্টারির দেখার অভিজ্ঞতার তুলনা করা যায়। জ্ঞানসমুদ্রের তীরে নুড়িপাথর কুড়ানোর অভিজ্ঞতা।

A serious book about science written in an inviting and light hearted way. Superb.

Full review coming soon...but I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed this. Entertaining, enlightening, and provide plenty of fodder for my creative writing. I'm a huge fan of Bill Bryson and have moved on to his Applacian Trail book.

It's easy to nitpick A Short History of Nearly Everything. Bryson, by his own cheerful admission anything but a scientist, makes a fair number of mistakes. He says that all living creatures contain hox genes; he omits Alexander Friedmann and George Gamow from his description of how the Big Bang theory was developed; when talking about Darwin and Paley, he doesn't seem to be aware that Natural Theology was one of Darwin's favorite books and had a huge influence on him. Those are just a few of the glitches I happened to notice. I'm sure a real expert would have spotted many more.

But so what? The author is incredibly entertaining, and I came across dozens of great stories from the history of science. He has done a fantastic job of tracking down details that you won't find in the other books! Continuing with Darwin, everyone's heard about the evolution debate between T.H. Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce; this was the dozenth time I'd seen Huxley's contemptuous reply to Wilberforce's question about whether he claimed descent from a monkey though his grandmother or his grandfather. But I'd never before read that Lady Brewster fainted, or that one of Darwin's Beagle colleagues wandered through the crowd, holding a Bible aloft and shouting "the Book, the Book!" Similarly, everyone tells you that Newton only published the Principia after Halley persuaded him to do it. But I hadn't heard that Newton intentionally made it as difficult as possible to read because he didn't want amateurs bothering him, or that Halley's reward was to be told by the Royal Society that since they could no longer afford to pay his salary in pounds sterling, he would instead be given remaindered copies of The History of Fishes.

And there were numerous other stories I'd never seen at all. If you don't find plenty here to amuse and instruct, you're either encyclopedically well-read in all branches of science or you have no interest in it whatsoever.

This is an ambitious book covering the history and development of ideas from a very wide range of topics pertaining to how we (humans) got here. Bryson starts all the way with the big bang, to the formation of the cosmos, the solar system and the planet, abiogenesis, evolution, and finally human prehistory. The book spices up a relatively high-level discussion of the relevant scientific topics with the lives and idiosyncrasies of the scientists who made the critical discoveries.

I admire the book for its scope, but an unfortunate side effect is that the book doesn’t get a chance to dive in to any one topic in a satisfying manner. Instead we get an overview of many topics and ideas which is fun sometimes unless you’re already familiar with the topics (e.g. Darwin’s beagle voyages, Watson&Crick’s DNA discovery, spread of humans from Africa, etc.). I personally somehow found the book a little tedious by the end and I was happy when it was over. Marking read, phew. 3/5 - it was okay. I suspect someone less familiar with many of the topics who is content with a broad but shallow overview and willing to hear a lot about the lives of scientists who made the relevant discoveries could enjoy it much more.