Customer Reviews
Dense
This is a truly dense book. I doubt it is possible to cram any more information into 470 or so pages. In college I took a course entitled "Physics for Poets." This is a sceince book with the same intent - science for the non-scientific. It covers everything from the history of the universe to atom construction to the history of living things to human development, etc., etc.
I found the book inconsistent. The first third is a history of scientific discovery. On top of telling the story, Mr. Bryson adds amusing anecdotal information about nearly every scientist named. At times these digressions got too far off point and I found I had to go back to remind myself of the topic being covered. Very often, Mr. Bryson would spend an inordinate amount of time describing scientific theories that were proven false. Occasionally these were interesting. Many times, however, I felt they were added only for humorous effect and did not add to the book.
Later in the book, it is straight science. Perhaps it is my liberal arts bent, but I found much of this to be tedious.
This book is hard work. It began as history and ended as dry, often complex science.
The best part of the book is that it relates how little we actually do know about our world, its history, atomic structure, and really every scientific field. The title perhaps should have been "The More we Know Tells Us How Much We Don't Know." That is the best lesson learned from getting through Mr. Bryson's epic tome.
History for the Layman
This is history for the layman. I myself wouldn't have used the title "Nearly Everything", rather, "of the World" or "of Nearly every Science". Bryson deals mostly with scientific history pertaining to the universe. From the beginning of the universe to stars, planets, matter such as atoms, quarks, our earth, chemicals, geology, astronomy, human evolution, dinosaurs, scientific principles from einstein to newton to darwin, and much more. He covers many bumbling and brilliant scientists along the way, giving special attention to those whose work happened to have the misfortune of not being discovered, laughed at and later proven correct, or their discoveries being credited to others. Unlike any other history book however, Bryson does it with his own unique and interesting style. He presents it all in an easy to digest, though sometimes superficial manner that makes it a very enjoyable read. For those who happen to be looking for more depth, this is still a great read as it presents many many topics and notable names to choose from as a starting point to begin your journeys deeper into the study of the history of our universe. As one who especially appreciates Bryson's sense of humor, I find this book a bit lacking in such, however Bryson does have some good quips interspersed to keep things light. All in all, another fine book from a fine author. P.S., doesn't Bryson know that Elvis isn't dead?, there's a teaser for you.
Rediscover what you learned in school and forgot
This book is aimed at people who either know very little about science, or who studied it in school and then forgot it all (my case). I read some of the reviews here and was shocked at how people criticize Bryson, especially saying he got scientific terms mixed up or had errors in his book. He is not a scientist and in my opinion that makes this book that much more impressive! Bryson devoted years of his life to learn this material, and to think we can take it all in by reading a book.. well it just doesn't seem fair! I was sad when I reached the end of the book, I wanted it to continue. I learned so much from this book, and it's interesting how many times the subject material in this book comes up in every day conversations.
Bryson approaches history from two angles: Astronomy and what we know about the universe, and Evolution and what we know about life on Earth. I learned so many things I didn't know. Fascinating facts such as that meteorites are used to date the earth with carbon dating (they're the same age). Meteorites contain proteins needed to build life. Human like species have been on Earth for 1 million years. After finishing this book, I find myself thinking about topics like these during my free time. That's how impressive this book is. If you love science, this won't be a book you just read and forget. It's a book that will teach you things you'll be thinking about for a long time.
Honestly I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you're interested in science, it is a must read.
Michael
