| A Short History of Nearly Everything |  | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Random House Audio
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $12.95
as of 7/29/2010 12:19 MST details
You Save: $17.00 (57%)
New (33) Used (45) from $12.95
Seller: elphaba_www_books
Rating:  810 reviews
Sales Rank: 29,290
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 4.9 x 1
ISBN: 0739302949
Dewey Decimal Number: 523.1
EAN: 9780739302941
ASIN: 0739302949
Publication Date: May 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780739302941 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
One of the world's most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.
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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 810
 A Short History of Nearly Everything You Didn't Want To Know July 28, 2010
Bobby T (South Riding, VA)
Bill Bryson is the quintessintial American writer and pretty much he touches, turns to Gold. But not on this book. I felt as if he spent more time providing a history of *individuals* responsible for the discovery of different things throughout history. Where they were born, what they ate, who they talked to, and what they worked on. Interesting to some, but not to me.
What's worse, is that I really didn't learn anything about History! Probably becaue I didn't finish the book....
 Excellent read! July 28, 2010
JHH
This book was a good review of a lot of things I learned, but forgotten. It was actually not painful to read about science because the author has lots of anecdotes. Some people are peeved by these side stories about the scientists, but I really enjoy them. Makes the scientist an actual person! I highly recommend this!
Bill Bryson's Short History July 26, 2010
shopper
I like this book so much it has become a staple present for all sorts of occasions. (Aside: if you get the audio version, opt for Bryson's reading - he is one of the best readers I have heard on audio books.) You can read it all at once, or just dip in for short sessions. He makes potentially dull facts fascinating with his command of language and narrative.
The seller filled the order in the time window promised, and there were no problems with delivery.
Awesomely entertaining and informative July 20, 2010
Idiot Proof (Vermont, United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is just downright entertaining, as well as dreadfully frightening. When you get to the parts about the fragility of the Earth's life-sustaining environment, the apparent inevitability of a catastrophic asteroid collision, or the imminent threat of a super-volcano eruption in a place like Yellowstone National Park, you may wonder if there is anywhere on Earth to safely relocate your family. But Bryson's dry humor and gift for finding and articulating irony had me chuckling out loud every time I sat down to read a chapter or two. He puts a very human (sometimes deflatingly human) face on the amazing advances of the scientific enterprise. The book is also very dense with "history class" type factual information (names, dates, places) that, while flowingly presented in the captivating narrative of a storytelling, are still difficult details to recall just a few hours after reading. Overall, this is a great read, and highly recommended to anyone who ever wished - even secretly - that they understood more about the physical universe, or especially for anyone who wonders about the legitimacy of science as a process for revealing truths.
 History of Science July 13, 2010
Jeremiah
I was very pleased with the condition of the boook and the speedy delivery. I would keep coming back to this vendor for future purchases.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 810
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