A Short History of Nearly Everything

Save £3.00!

Similar Products:

Mother Tongue: The English Language

Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe

Notes from a Big Country

Troublesome Words

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

Customer Reviews:

• 
  2008-08-24
  By Mr. Tristan Martin, Cambridge, UK
  Bill Bryson's book is an attempt to discuss the origins of life, the universe and everything contained therein. It's slightly tongue-in-cheek title indicates that this isn't going to be some heavyweight, academic discussion but more of a Now That's What I Call Science! After all, no book can seriously claim to be all-encompassing and completely comprehensive on any one subject, let alone "everything."
  
  A Short History of Nearly Everything is clearly written to be a book that appeals to people who wouldn't normally want to read a whole book about gravity, molecular science, or paleontology; as a result, the book falls betwixt two stools: it skims superficially pretty much every subject it touches upon, so those only mildly interested won't learn much and those who have already read something on their specialised subject probably won't learn anything they didn't already know.
  
  The first half of the book is the most interesting, containing some great anecdotes about the famous names of science (Newton, Darwin and so forth); this section shines and brings to life people whose names have become synonymous with their subject matter. However, as the various disciplines become more professionalised, the well of anecdotal material runs short, and the book loses much of its appeal.
  
  One of the key themes of this work, which is not overtly stated but seems unmissable, is that the narrative of the history of science is quite different from how the mainstream media portrays science itself. Specifically, science is often presented as being the concept of a battle over evidence: how an idea is proposed, evidence is put forth in support, counterevidence is held up against it and ultimately, whichever theory fits most of the facts is deemed to be that which is most probable. This is not the case, according to Bryson's book. What is deemed to be scientifically true is determined just as much by factors of cultural acceptance as objective facts. Theories are put forth, ignored, then ridiculed, then, when the evidence becomes such that it can neither be marginalised nor mocked, the theory is embraced and history effectively rewritten so that science can be presented as being the onward march of progress and enlightenment. A reassuring but historically dubious narrative.
  
  A Short History... is marketed around the "Bill Bryson" brand: his low-key charm, wit and self-effacing humour is meant to enliven the driest of subjects. Therefore, if you enjoy his style, then you will probably enjoy this book and indeed, the book was charmingly well written and certainly easy to consume. However, at best, A Short History of Nearly Everything is a shallow introduction to the key disciplines of the various sciences, animated by some fine anecdotal touches. Bryson's book will probably provide a drop-off point for those wishing to explore in greater breadth subjects of which their curiosity has been piqued.
  
  
• 
  2008-08-25
  By Sally Wilton, Bournemouth UK
  I started out with enthusiasm with this book but should have read the title a little more carefully. A short 'history'of nearly everything with the emphasis on HISTORY. This book goes into great detail on how and when each new bit of information was discovered with biographies of the scientists involved. This was not really what I wanted to read about as would prefer just to know the latest most up to date information and there are plenty much more interesting books on these topics, I have been browsing the Lonely Planet version on space and science which is illustrated and topical. Dont wish to offend fans of Bill Bryson, it is probably my mistake.
  
  
• 
  2008-09-23
  By P. Garcia, Paisley
  This book is not only highy educational, but very entertaining, and Bryson's writting style makes it fun, and it keeps you craving for more.
  If would be a good idea to make this read a compulsory High School one, to excite the curiosity and the thirst for knowledge of our students, considering the fact that the more we know, the more we love.
  It is a nearly complete and thorough overview on the main principles of science. Wery well informed with plenty of historical anecdotes and curiosities. I have learned and laughed so much!!!
  A genius's work.
  
  
• 
  2008-09-23
  By Alex Ireland,
  I am skeptical of journalists or writers who think they can write a book about anything. Yeah sure they've a great gift for writing but that doesn't mean they have a great gift for understanding! All too often they think they understand something when they simply don't.
  
  I really can't fathom that in a long book which is supposed to be a "all you need to know" about the science, the scientific method itself isn't even explained. This means the mechanism which establishes science as most objective and reliable paradigm we have for establishing objective truth about the universe is omitted. Now, there's a countless amount of facts, dates, figures and 'imagine this' type stuff all there with the assumed intent of making a reader go wow. All very well, some of it will fuse the imagination, but let's not forget that the scientific method is what defines science and differentiates between science and pseudo-science. Without it, we have no way of differentiating the reliability between the big bang theory and crystal healers.
  
  Too many times, instead of explaining principles and concepts, Bryson opts for facts about dates. It really doesn't matter if it was 1915, 1916, or 1917 when Einstein published his theory on general relativity what matters is what it is saying, the concepts that underpin it and why we can be confident it's correct. In this regard, Byrson comes up well short. Someone like Simon Singh, Stephen Hawking, just about anyone with scientific training does a much better job.
  
  He does make reasonable attempts at describing many of the Scientific theories, but there are times when his understanding is just way off.
  
  For example, when he discusses the theory of evolution which is just as sound as the theory of gravity in terms of the scientific method. Both are testifiable, falsifiable, have huge amounts of evidence (one billion+ fossils and infinite amount of DNA evidence), been through the same peer reviewing processes etc. So, in scientific terms doubting evolution is like doubting gravity. It's just asinine. Perhaps Bryson should think about that the next time he gets on a plane.
  
  His poor understanding insinutates that the lack of fossils found in human evolution may cast doubt on the theory. He sounds like a scientifically illiterate ignoramus who has just sifted their way through some intelligent design propaganda.
  
  Why doesn't he point out the probability of fossilation is only about 1 / million and the probability of finding one about the same, which by simple mathematics make every fossil find of our ancestors species a miracle in statistical terms? Why doesn't he go through the simple mathematics in DNA which have confirmed evolution an infinite amount of times and provide even stronger evidence than fossils?
  
  If you want a pop Science book so that you can understand science just skip this book. Science is a very area broad area now. Experts in Physics are not experts in Biology. Experts in Biology are not experts in Physics. A writer with no scientific expertise is certainly not an expert in anything scientific. If you really want to understand science, pick a branch of science and then pick the appropriate expert. Someone like Feymen for Physics, Dawkins for Biology or Hawking for the Universe.
  
  Before you do any of that, make sure you understand the scientific method as described by Karl Popper. This is the framework that underpins all science and what makes science an exceptionally reliable paradigm. It's why planes fly and why we know the origins of all species on our planet.
  
  If you couldn't give a monkeys about understanding and just want lots of scientific trivia; dates and names rather than any real understanding, yes sadly this book could be a runner.
  
  
  
• 
  2008-10-05
  By Peter A. Colwill, England
  Well I love a good Bill Bryson book and this is surely the best. As a travel writer he has kept me interested and amused with many an exciting journey but this rates as the best journey he has ever written. A journey that takes the layman on a travel experience spanning billions of years including an insight into all the sciences and ologies one can imagine. If only I had been able to read science at school like this...I might well have found an interest.