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Summary: The only book I have ever read twice, back to back
Review: Bill Bryson's A short History of Nearly Everything rates as nearly the best book I have ever read. He takes complex subjects and renders them readable, understandable and highly entertaining. While I am an avid reader, I learned more from this book than I have from nearly anything else. A must read!
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Summary: An excellent piece of work
Review: This book is a credit to Bill Bryson. I have studied in Geology, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, yet have never had the world of science explained as well as it is in this book. Of course the principles raised need far greater exploration for those who truley want to understand the precise workings of the world, but Bryson allows those who are usually scared off by the mundane writing of scientists, an entertaining introduction to the complex universe in which we reside.
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Summary: Did Bryson Really Have To Write This Book?
Review: As a biologist I have great problems with Bryson's book. He is certainly able to create interesting analogies that capture the reader's attention. As a matter of fact - the book is filled with them. In terms of content and perspective I find that the book is lacking. I actually have a hard time reading it without feeling nauseous.
How can Bryson take on the task of writing this kind of book? He is trying to encapsulate some of the great discoveries and perspectives within the rapidly growing field of science. I think that perspective is somewhat like a good wine. It takes time to build and to "see" the world with eyes enriched by the vision of science. Bryson took a few years off, read some books and talked to some eminent researchers. As a result we have some kind of "Reader's Digest" science book. Interestingly, people seem to love it. One reader even proposed to use this kind of book as a science text in our schools.
I love art history and the different works made by an amazing array of artists over the last five thousand years. Am I qualified to write a history of art? NO! I certainly could try to transfer my passion for the field, but my perspective would be hampered by a lack of training. I would need decades to ponder the different art forms, the artists and the religious and cultural changes occurring in the world. Would I do the world a favor by transferring my passion about art to the public? Definitely! Should my book be viewed as good introduction to the history of art? Absolutely not!
These kinds of books SHOULD be written by people active in the field. Of course, these scientists will need to have the gift to transform their perspectives into digestible paragraphs. A great example would be Carl Sagan that truly brought astronomy to the public mind. It takes many years to really start to "see" these fields and Bryson continuously sounds like a neophyte as he tramples through the different areas of science. I appreciate his genuine interest in learning about the world around him. The process of learning and discovering is a wonderful journey, but did he really need to publish this book?
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Summary: Lost Money Buying this book. Not Happy.
Review: Bad reading and a waste of my time.
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Summary: FASCINATING!
Review: This book is excellent...it reads like fiction but is all science. Bill Bryson writes for the lay person and attempts to answer major science questions. It's so impressive that the high school where I teach is thinking of creating a one-semester class around it and using it as our textbook. I think just about every science teacher would love it, and even the most science-phobic students and adults will get a kick out of it. Unlike most popular science books, this weaves together the various aspects of science (history, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and space science) into a seamless "story," replete with humor, interesting tidbits, and character development.
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Summary: A not-so-short history of science
Review: To begin with, this is not really a history book, nor is it a science book. A more accurate description of it would say that it's a history of science book. The author, Bill Bryson, an extensive traveler famous for his keen observation and engaging storytelling, attempts to take a journey through the history of the universe but ends up telling the story of how our scientists came to theorize about this history.Science can be a very boring subject, and is manifestly so for Bill. To help himself go through it all he amuses himself with numerous anecdotes and interesting trivia about the scientists involved. He has a talent for digging up the interesting stories behind important discoveries and popular theories of old times and of today. He's always on the lookout for fascinating facts and astonishing numbers even if they had little significance for the whole body of scientific knowledge or if they featured any practicality at all. He starts the book by telling what we know about the beginning of the universe itself. The problem he stumbles upon, however, is that all we have are theories and very few, if any, facts. To maintain credibility, Bill explains how we came to conceive those theories. This book is a tribute to all the scientists forgotten by the public and especially those that are not even credited with their own achievements. He tells not only about the scientists' work, but he paints you profiles about their characters and recounts many of their entertaining and sometimes surprising anecdotes. Bill's style is very exciting and can make even the most boring stories seem interesting. After describing the universe and how scientists arrived at what they know about how it became, Bill lands on Earth. Once again he talks about the features of our planet and how we came to learn about them. I found this chapter to be difficult to go through since it mainly chronicled the emergence and development of geology, one of the sciences that least interests me. Unsurprisingly, the lives of geologists aren't that interesting either. Unfortunately, the book seems to lose coherence at this point. Once here you'll get the feeling that the author is overwhelmed with information and is trying to absorb it all at once. Just as we begin talking about Einstein's relativity we find ourselves discussing how we came to know about the Dinosaurs and their extinction. And while we're learning how to date paleontological findings we suddenly delve into a subatomic venture to encounter the quarks. And only after reaching all the way down to the core of the Earth and up to the highest point of the Earth's thermosphere that coherence is restored. But until then, disorientation was my prevailing sentiment. The fourth part looks at life itself and how we think it began. We learn about how Darwin envisioned the evolution theory and how the world reacted to it. We find out what enhancements were introduced to it and what picture it depicts about life. Many questions are pondered such as how is life so perseverant and fragile all together, and what various hurdles it had to overcome to reach you and me. This is a very enjoyable part not only because Bill seems to get over his fascination with the scientists and focus instead on the science itself, but because the story is told coherently and contemplatively. This part definitely makes up for the lousy reading that precedes it. Its only flaw is that it ends. The book concludes on a reflective note. Bill cogitates about where do humans stand in the midst of all this. What is our role in this cosmological game? What do we mean to life itself? He ends the book by leaving you puzzled by the conundrum that although we might be the only beings able to observe life, yet our own ignorance and greed could very well be the main reason behind life's annihilation. We're not good for the job, nevertheless we might be all there is. So in summary, this is not a book that will make you a scientists. After going through the hundreds of names and stories, all the unpronounceable terminologies and the expired theories, I assume that I'll hardly remember 20% of it all. So take this book for what it's worth. It's very entertaining all while being to some extent educating. If you're looking for a science reference or a more science-oriented history book, however, then this is not the book for you. Also, if you are a fan of audio books then I highly recommend the abridged audio edition of this book . It is available on 4 tapes and the book is narrated by the author himself. It is informally divided into 5 minutes sections, which makes them very convenient to listen to in the car.
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Summary: Now I know almost everything
Review: This was a fun and eye opening book. It's great to read on the train going to work or when you only have ten or fifteen minutes to spare. Fascinating information.
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Summary: Has Bryson Ever Written a Bad Book?
Review: I have a shelf at home of all of his books. Need I say more. His books are sort of like Seinfeld - about nothing but very entertaining. I bought his Australia "Down Under" book while traveling in Australia at the Melbourne airport. That was the first but then I was hooked on Bill's books.Then I walked with him up the long Trail in his "Walk in the Woods", and on and on through Europe in "Neither Here nor There" and England the "Small Island". You cannot throw his books away, they are great reads and make good gifts. This book like the others is a no brainer. I am a professional scientist and would highly recommend. It would be better if it was a few dollars cheaper so they could sell more copies. Great book. Bill loves to write and it shows.
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Summary: This is the finest book on science I've ever read.
Review: Mr. Bryson has a way of making the most complex subjects easily understandable. Did you know that 500,000,000,000 protons would fit into the space taken up by a sentence-ending period? Bryson does and he offers all kinds of similar facts backed up by easy-to-read explanations. I am firmly convinced that, if I had read his book while I was in high school, I would have selected one of the sciences as my life's work. I am now reading this book for the second time and will probably read it many more times as well. I liked it so much that I even gave a copy to my son for a Christmas present. Get a copy for yourself, settle down in your easy chair, and enjoy hours of pure pleasure.
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Summary: Bill Bryson is the best writer of our day, plain and simple
Review: The only books I've not read of Bill Bryson's have been his books on language (though I intend to buy them soon). Simply put: Bill Bryson is the best writer of books in the English language alive today. Everything he writes, and I mean EVERYTHING, is well written, insightful, fascinating, and funny. This is no small feat for A Short History of Nearly Everything. Buoyed by a desire to learn SOMETHING from science, he embarked on a 3-year journey of research--the kind you get from reading books and interviewing experts. During the 3 years, Bryson indeed learned quite a lot. He shares his knowledge with you. Whether explaining astronomy, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, evolution, geology, or giving you a funny side story about someone well-known in any of the myriad fields he discusses, you will learn more from this book (unless you're already a scientist), than you've probably ever learned of science. He takes the complexity out of (nearly) everything and shows you why it is--or at least should be--important to you. Not everything he excels at, however. He tries to explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but he evidently doesn't quite understand it himself (who can blame him?). There are a couple of other places like that in the book. But overall, this book is wonderful. School systems would do well to use this book in their general science courses! It's not enough to be a really rigorous science book, but it is a fantastic introduction to everything. If you have ever been curious to learn something about...everything...then pick up this book. You won't be disappointed.
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