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Audio CD Description 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

Customer Reviews We've come a long way in a short time. Other than an interesting Physics Teacher, my public school science teachers could not interest me in science with their comatose delivery. I'm not proud of it, but that's the way it is. So, many years later I got a hold of BILL BRYSON's book, A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING. It is an interesting and informative read! At first I was frightened by the similarities in title with A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, Steven Hawking's book "SIMPLIFYING" the many difficulties of Quantum Physics. That Simplification took me several reads to even make basic understanding. But A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING really is a great vehicle for delivering the latest (at time of writing) Scientific information in a simple, informative way. It is filled with interesting scientific trivia as well as occasional milestone chronology of how we got to this point. Still high minded for most early high school mentalities, but it can be enjoyed by anyone else longing for a better scientific understanding of our world. Abridged CD is great for both long and short trips! Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" has... a bit of something that will entertain and educate every listener. I've gone through the abridged CD in my Ford Explorer for both long trips and trips about town. It is a pleasant "read" every time, and I've been through it 3 times now. OK, OK... I'll buy the book! But I guarantee you that kids aged 8-80 will find the CD a pleasant alternative to Christina Aguilera, Harry Potter, or Game Boy. Try it! If you thought science was boring...think again Bryson brings humor and personality to a subject that many people would ordinarily avoid out of fear of boredom - science history. I read some of the other reviews that said Bryson was woefully misinformed about a lot of things. I don't know if that's true or not because I'm not a scientist. But certainly a lot of what Bryson talks about IS verifiable. I think reading the book and nitpicking a small error here or there is the wrong way to judge this book. I can say this: On just about every page of this book I find myself saying "Wow." Bryson has a talent for relating fairly obscure ideas into concepts that everyone can understand. Like, for example, telling us that the blue whale's tongue weighs as much as an elephant and it's heart is the size of a car. Some topics are more entertaining than others. The chapters on Oceanogrpahy were funny at times and very entertaining. Although, by neccesity, Bryson sometimes needs to go very deeply into a subject (like explaining how atoms behave), he still manages to keep the subject matter from getting too far over the head of anyone. At times, after a long passage of technical jargon he even confesses that HE is over HIS OWN head with some of the material, and moves on. I have learned a ton of things about science from this book. Bryson's at his best when he's talking about the wacky scientists of today and yesterday - many of whom were clearly a little crazy, but also responsible for fascinating discoveries. You'll gain some new insight into Einstein and Newton, as well as lots of other very important scientists most people have never heard of. In short, this book is great. I wouldn't worry about a potential minor error here or there. Nobody's perfect and unless you work for NASA or are a biology professor or a scientist yourself, it's unlikely that you're going to know the difference anyhow. You don't read this because you want to know that the information is 100% accurate beyond any shadow of doubt...you read it because it's fascinating and very entertaining along the way.