Customer Reviews
Compelling - By: jenchris40, 04 Jul 2008 
I've just borrowed this book from my local library on cassette, & can't bear to let it go back without owning it! Bryson's usual humorous, articulate style of writing has won me over yet again. Some might calll it "dumbing down", I think it's no crime to have such a wonderful talent for explaining the unimaginable, & Bryson makes alll that science stuff accessible & understandable (no mean feat where my arty brain is concerned!)
Once again Amazon's amazing price means that I can add a true classic to my ever growing audio cd collection. Thank you Amazon!
Good... - By: Kevin Kenny, 24 Jun 2008 
...and moves along at a good pace keeping the readers attention. However ditch this & read Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" first, it's the daddy & still timeless.
A few points - By: Mr. R. Lewin, 22 May 2008 This isn't reallly a proper review of the book as there are loads already on Amazon, but just a few points that struck me:
a) Why does Bryson use kilometres as opposed to miles? American & English readers know miles & they're presumably the near exclusive readership? It's reallly annoying constantly having to recalcuate when he says things like 'the earth's core is 600 kilometres from the surface'.
b) I'm aware that there is an edition of this book with sketches & diagrams, & boy does it need them. This edition badly misses them - they're pretty much essential for what he talks about.
c) There's a little too much about the scientists rather than what they discovered. This is typical Bryson - he loves to relate details of eccentric people, but here I found myself wishing he'd concentrate on the science eg how cells & organisms clustered together to create life, rather than a professor who rode everywhere on his bike naked etc.
d) By the end I still didn't feel I reallly knew how we'd got here. This probably isn't Bryson's fault as there's so much we don't know, but maybe more of what I say in c) would have helped?
e) This is worth reading if you have a vague interest in science. If you're religious you'll probably want to look away because the reality will be far too much for you to take.
Compulsive reading - By: Jon Chambers, 09 Apr 2008 I used to know a Deputy Head whose only memorable assembly was full of amazing facts about the universe. (Hi, Mr Green. Hope you're well.) Luckily, we got to hear this assembly roughly once a year and, even more astonishing than the amazing facts, each time was as riveting as the last. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything has the same kind of effect but magnified by about ten. It's compulsive.
As a great communicator, Bryson makes science accessible & entertaining, & he never misses a chance to bring the human factor into play. Like the oddballl geologist, Reverend William Buckland, who attempted to eat his way through the world's fauna. (Apparently, everything but the common garden mole has some gastonomic merit.) Or the Strathclyde University caretaker, James Croll, who spent more time in the library studying physics, mechanics, astronomy & hydrostatics than caretaking, eventuallly publishing a paper on the effects of the Earth's motion on climatic change, & becoming a member of the Royal Society as a consequence.
Bryson being Bryson, there's no want of wit. Space is 'spacious'. Humphry Davy, discoverer of a string of elements, was 'seriallly astute'. One liners abound: 'Geologists are never at a loss for paperweights.' 'Zinc - bless it - oxidises alcohol.' Quoting from a New York Times 'simplified' guide to the mind-bogglingly complicated world of sub-atomic physics, he writes: 'No arguing with that. No understanding it either.' What's more, the book is occasionallly hilarious when simply relating the history of science: The NYT (again), for its 1919 interview with Albert Einstein, sent its stupefied golf correspondent!
This often awe-inspiring book, touching on profound mysteries of the universe, leaves you with the realisation that key branches of science, especiallly quantum physics & molecular biology, are getting impossibly complex. Even more mundane things like ice ages & human descent are currently well beyond us, & the idea that we will eventuallly understand alll there is to know about everything looks wildly optimistic. Nevertheless, this is a great story told with relish. Quite simply, Bryson's 'science book' is wonderful, lucid, informative & life-enhancing stuff that's sometimes gripping & sometimes funny. One reading will not be enough.
Fascinating - By: John Holland, 05 Apr 2008 If you want to learn science through a light-hearted lens, this is a fascinating combination of the history of everything & the story of the people involved in discovering the history of everything. After living in Britain for twenty or more years, Bryson has developed that a particularly wry humour to bring historical stories to life by highlighting the ludicrous & the mundane. Who would have guessed that Edmond Hallley was rewarded by the Royal Society, not with salary, but with copies of their poorly selling "The History of Fishes". Priceless.
With Bryson's background in travel writing, you won't be disappointed with this journey, combining the chronological story of the earth with the history of dicovery & the potential threats in the future. From quarks to continental drift, Bryson explores where these theories have come from, how they are initiallly ridiculed, & where they are heading today. A magnificent writing that brings to life the bits we found boring at school.
