Rating: 
Summary: The better textbook
Review: I think if High School and College textbooks were this entertaining we wouldn't be so bored when we take these courses.
I loved that the book read more like a story than a telling of facts.
I would highly recommend this book to all families.
Rating: 
Summary: Nearly everything or almost nothing?
Review: This is the fifth Bryson book I've read, and a wonderful addition to his diverse output. As an author, he has the ability to go from absurdly funny to sublimely ethereal. This tome represents a venture into the latter. He takes on a daunting task -- summarizing how we know what we know in the scientific world -- and makes it amazingly simple and readable... to a point. To say that this is an easy read would be misleading.More than offering page after page crammed with names and discoveries and how an idea led to another (or went unnoticed for decades), this volume shows more how luck, serendipity, and intuition play roles in the discovery process. And how little we really know. This is a useful companion to other works that point out how humankind is not necessarily the inevitable outcome of evolution and how we may, when our days are finished, be not much more than a footnote to the true history of the world.
Rating:
Summary: A journalist fascinated with the scientific method
Review: Journalist Bill Bryson got tired of not knowing things. So he took three years off to pester scientists to give him all the answers about the Universe, Life and Everything. This 500-page book is the result of his quest and a big portrait of all that we Humans know and (more importantly) don't know and how we got there. The table of contents made me laugh out loud - it so impossibly broad in its scope, ranging from Cosmology to Nuclear Physics to Biology to Geology and much more... But he somehow made it work. Bill is obviously fascinated with Science and he portrays the scientific method very clearly (plus all the backstabbing that happens when nobody is looking). The book is clear, as concise as possible and very accessible to you and me. He doesn't pretend to know all subjects and he is very candid about what he doesn't understand. What a great teacher he could be! (is?) He also happens to be a gifed and witty writer, able to keep you glued to the pages even when the subject is as dry as geology. Of course, the book is superficial but hey, it is, after all, a short history of EVERYTHING. To compensate for this, the bibliography and notes pages are very thorough and will make you shop for several other books here at Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: Great introductory book on the universe and the world
Review: This is a must read for those who have felt intimidated by the increasingly frequent headlines relating to discoveries in geology, chemistry, biotechnology, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. Bryson does a masterful job in providing a easily understood overview of how we got to where we are and a framework for understanding the significance of where we are going. "A Short History About Nearly Everything" is an easy and fun read for all. With it, you will no longer be an uninterested spectator to the fundamental events shaping what we know, where we are going, and, most importantly, who we are in the 21st Century.
Rating:
Summary: Good Yarn
Review: Bill Bryson is a born storyteller. He introduces us to a land of hundreds of lively characters. For example, Newton is a crazed recluse, who spends a lot of time practicing alchemy and is so distracted he can barely get out of bed. His friend Haley asks him about the orbital path of the earth and Newton has already figured it out, but he can't find his calculations among his mess. It is only with Haley's encouragement that he grudgingly rewrites it, and then goes on to write his Magnum Opus Principia Mathematica.
Meanwhile, Dinosaur fossil hunters throw rocks at each others at each others excavation teams and are caught literally stealing fossils from each other. There are plenty of villainous and noble characters, and hilarious exploits. I feel as though Bill Byrson visited my living room and brought with him many lively and some deranged dinner guests. But this book is informative as well as entertaining. Bryson inspires a curiosity and respect for our beautiful and unlikely world. Where, for example right now, the Reverend Evans may now be trudging a eucalyptus covered hill to search for supernovae, which is his talent. He will continue to do this despite the fact that it can now be done automatically, and we will continue to look with him.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Entertaining Book of Science
Review: This book lets you explore the universe and gives you an understanding of so much that you probably never knew before. It explains everything so clearly that even as dumb person as me can kind of understand it. This is just about the best non-fiction book I have ever read, and Bill Bryson is one of the best authors working in the field today. I found this book eminently readable - at once entertaining and informative. It is fascinating and a good way to observe life from a new set of perspectives. I'm sure, Bill Bryson wrote this book because he didn't think science should be boring. And in this book, it isn't. It is quite enough humorous. Enjoy the book.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, Interesting, Informative!
Review: I simply don't understand some of the reviewers here. Yes, Bryson may have included a few errors as part of his elaboration on the sciences. So what? What person bases the whole of their scientific knowledge on just this one book, particularly as it's authored by a complete layman to the field? Yeesh. This should be considered some kind of introductory reading to the countless folks who just want an idea of the who, why, where, when and what of the sciences and some enjoyment while they find it all out! The book is so well written that I simply could not wait for 11:00pm (to midnight, my nightly reading hour) to roll around everyday. I finished this nearly 500-page work in nine days-- a considerable pace for a slow-reader as myself-- enjoying myself every paragraph of the way. Bryson comes off as so genuinely interested in the topics that his innocent curiosity and retelling is relatable to all of us. This is not Stephen Hawking's (who is great of course) other-worldly intellect attempting to come down to our level of thinking. This guy is one of us and he wants answers to the same questions we have. And boy, do we get them! The book is packed with information, all told in a wonderful manner that is continually entertaining and to those of us scientifically challenged lay people, quite astounding. Bryson alerts the reader of the many thoroughly amazing discoveries, ideas and concepts that the sciences have delivered to boggle the mind and certainly aid in appreciating this wonderful world of ours, its incredible life and our universe at large. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Perpetuates a myth, but read it anyway!
Review: This is a wonderful book. Readable, *current*, interesting in a really inspiring way, and I love the fact that it is indexed, and includes references and a bibliography. A very nice piece of work in that if it should happen to spark one's interest in this or that, one could actually find something else to read on the topic. Unfortunately, the book does perpetuate a myth. Mind you, this is not fatal! The myth is the cathedral window example to explain the fluidity of glass, and comprises a tiny paragraph on page 217. Tiny. To paraphrase lamely, the myth runs more or less thus: "Gravity pulls on glass, and the evidence of this, is that the glass panes in the windows of European cathedrals is thicker at the bottoms than at the tops." This tale is pretty irresistible, because it would be sooo cool if it were true. That is, it could very well be true -- but if so, the effect has not been proven to be measurable.
In fact, glass objects far more ancient than medieval cathedral windows -- for example, vases dating from antiquity, etc. -- do not show any kind of malformation that can be attributed to the earth's gravitational pull on the material, even though many extant specimens lay stationary for thousands of years before being recovered and moved. It has been said that the surfaces on which medieval window-glass was poured out were not level, and that the panes were cut in such a way as to leave the thicker bits at the bottom for stability. Haven't found much documentation on that detail yet, so maybe it's nonsense; but the cathedral window example itself has been pretty thoroughly written off as a non-example by reputable scientists.
The book is wonderful. Mr. Bryson even made it suspenseful. I do hope I'm not the zillionth 'know-it-all' jerk to have pointed out the cathedral window-thing. I do know I've made a big deal out of it. But I've done so out of respect for Mr. Bryson, on account of his own comment, in the atomic chemistry or particle physics section, that textbook explanations of the energy levels occupied by electrons are entirely false and misleading. He appears to care about this sort of thing. In the next edition of *Short History* -- and I seriously hope Mr. Bryson will consider updating the work from time to time -- the bit about the windows could easily be left out. I do hope there will be a new edition if the knowledge advances interestingly enough to warrant such.
Rating: 
Summary: Nearly everything is missing
Review: When I picked up this book, I thought the "everything" in "nearly everything" was everything. In the introduction, the author makes it seem that way too. He fails to mention (anywhere in the book) that his perception of "everything" is just the natural sciences. It is a fun, engaging, acceptably thorough survey of the way mankind first discovered and now views the natural sciences, and for that, it is worth notice. But to say that it is a take on everything is not only wrong, but arrogant and blind. The biggest part of "everything" is man's culture and it is not even regarded except in the findings of science. And even then, it is severely deficient. When it looks at Relativity or Evolution, for example, it passes up the opportunity for really exploring the theories so that the author can spend more time on the scientist's lives and events surrounding the actual science. I guess that's why it's a history, but getting just a taste is painful for those seeking more than just cocktail party anecdotes. The book doesn't even touch on all the sciences--most notably lacking a survey of psychology. Neuroscience is perhaps at the forefront of "everything" and it isn't even hinted at here. Instead, Bryson broadcasts, in the officious, repetitive and sarcastic way so many outside of science do, that man and his culture are insignificant, lucky and dangerous. Amnesia strikes the author several times as he asserts how innovative and creative we have been by examining a few of the great natural philosophers and then abruptly claims how harmful and puny we are. He will claim how vast the earth is and how easily it (or an asteroid) could destroy the insignificant mankind and then notes how we are destroying the earth and are a likely candidate for the most destructive thing in the universe. Bryson sees man's product as shameful and the rest of the universe as brilliant and awesome. The truth of the latter should not necessitate the former. But what else can one expect from someone who thinks "everything" is physical and happens without man's interference? For a good survey of the thought behind science, read "The Dream of Reason" by Anthony Gottlieb. For a great survey of the greatest cultural era in history, read "From Dawn to Decadence" by Jacques Barzun. For insight into the relationship between man, nature and the metaphysical, read "Justice and Equality" by E. Robert Morse.
Rating: 
Summary: Good writer; questionable project
Review: Bill Bryson clearly is a good writer, and his style more than makes up for his lack of expertise in the subject. However, I'm afraid his apparent aim -- to write an accessible account of all of the most important discoveries in the earth and life sciences, clearly cannot be fulfilled in a single book. Bryson seems to rush through just about everything, which is probably the only way he could have written this book without making it 20 volumes.
| 
