A Short History of Nearly Everything

by Bill Bryson,

In this non-fiction book, Bryson is eloquent in his description of the history of our earth. The book begins with Bryson summarizing the Big Bang theory, and how the universe came to be. This immediately captures the readers interest, and sets the tone for what incredible facts this book is about to display. As the novel progresses however, we see Bryson go from colossal things, such as the universe, down to the smallest details of our planet, such as how the atom works.

I would recommend this book for two reasons. For one, it is extremely detailed, and unnveils things about our planet and world that many would never have guessed at. For another, it is written in a very sophisticated fashion.

This novel reveals everything about our world, down to the smallest detail. It briefly covers every scientific field, so that the book rarely gets boring, and it is constantly spilling out facts. Not only is it a history of science, but i also reveals the lives and works of many of the scientists who discovered these facts, for example, Albert Einstein, and his invaluable theory of relativity.

Bryson combines science, humour and history all into one book. Each of these themes are intertwined, so that the novel is always refreshing. The authors superior writing ability makes reading facts that would normally seem reasonably boring, exciting, and interesting to read.

I would not recommed this book for two reasons. For one, sections of science that an indivudual finds boring can drag on for a long time. For another, in some chapters, Bryson is less thorough than in others.

Although there are many areas, and chapters that are interesting, there are some that seem to drag on for an eternity. This may be because some of these seem to be longer than others, and much less intersting. For example, one might find that the chapter on Newton's discoveries in the field of physics tends to be exceedingly boring. This was the biggest downfall off this book. Next, there are parts in the book where the author takes two or three chapters to explain something, and then merely one chapter for another are. This became frustrating, especially when one would get to an intersting area of the book, only to find that it lasted half of a chapter.

I do think that Bryson was, perhaps, a little biased in the areas of science that he preferred. This would explain why he took more chapters for things that seemed equally important as those that were not regarded. Other than that, he was unbiased in his facts, and he did an excellent job of conveying them.

In all, this book was very interesting, and was well worth the read for those who would like to read a non-fiction book that is humourous, interesting and thorough.