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Books : A Short History of Nearly EverythingBrowse or Search and Buy Online our Best Sellers Shopping Sales of Books and A Short History of Nearly Everything. by: Bill Bryson  Dewey Decimal Number: 509 EAN: 9780754075950 ISBN: 0754075958 Label: BBC Audiobooks Ltd Manufacturer: BBC Audiobooks Ltd Number Of Discs: 12 Publication Date: October 07, 2003 Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd Studio: BBC Audiobooks Ltd Sales Rank: 2036518 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This book is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums like how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about many of his findings. In the company of such extraordinary people, Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before. Amazon.com Review: From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short History of Nearly Everything reports what happened and how humans figured it out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson uses hundreds of sources, from popular science books to interviews with luminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him, who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations, to appreciate how we have used science to understand the smallest particles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space. With his distinctive prose style and wit, Bryson succeeds admirably. Though A Short History clocks in at a daunting 500-plus pages and covers the same material as every science book before it, it reads something like a particularly detailed novel (albeit without a plot). Each longish chapter is devoted to a topic like the age of our planet or how cells work, and these chapters are grouped into larger sections such as "The Size of the Earth" and "Life Itself." Bryson chats with experts like Richard Fortey (author of Life and Trilobite) and these interviews are charming. But it's when Bryson dives into some of science's best and most embarrassing fights--Cope vs. Marsh, Conway Morris vs. Gould--that he finds literary gold. --Therese Littleton Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Simply Amazing!Let me start by saying that this was one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I have ever read! The author starts by explaining the beginning of the universe and he discusses it in a very intriguing and easy to understand way. The truly "astronomical" numbers are put into interesting analogies and you truly stand in awe at the information being presented. After this, the book diverts its attention to Earth, a topic which is just as fascinating as the first portion of the book. Bryson ... Read More Rating: - Great Science And History Presented In An Entertaining Way Bill Bryson has created a wonderfully informative book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. In it, he presents a large amount of scientific findings and history in a very entertaining fashion. This book made me laugh out loud many times. This is a great book for anyone, but particularly people who enjoy science. This is one of the best science books I have ever read. Schools should replace science textbooks with this book. It is unlike many other science books, because it is so entertaining. Bryson ... Read More Rating: - One of the best books that I have ever readBill Bryson has raked together a sampling of all the technical knowledge that we have. Some of the conclusions may be questionable, but questioning is what man does best. This is a book that everyone should read. I am reading the book for the second time and have two other copies that I am circulating among my friends. Rating: - Everyone should read or listen to this bookAnyone interested to know where we come from, how big is the universe is, how tiny is human history, how and where life "is", etc... must read this book. Hands down, one of the greatest books in its category written by a funny author with the ability to make complex things pleasant and easy to grasp. I suggest the complete audio CDs (17 hours). Started to read this book and the experience was somehow less interesting. Too many names are acknowledged throughout the book, I'd ... Read More Rating: - Entertaining Journey Through the UniverseI got this book because I could not find the one I wanted. I was hoping I made the right decision. I have been really enjoying this book. Bryson explains Science in a way that makes it extremely interesting and understandable. I'm very glad I got took a chance on it. Browse for similar items by category:
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