I ordered the abridged version first and loved it. Then I ordered the unabridged version and felt cheated by the abridged version. More is definately better with Bill Bryson.

If you have a general interest in the sciences, then this book is for you. Some topics were of much more interest to me than others, but collectively I found the entire book a pleasure to listen to.

It doesn't get any better than this. Fun, informative, beautifully narrated. Every student should listen to this before they're admitted to high school--America would have many more scientists. I'm looking forward to Bryson's next book -- A LONG History of EVERYTHING.

great book to listen to for science enthusists. he goes from subject to subject and gives you a little knowledge of each.

I liked this book overall, but the ending was, while necessary, depressing. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody.

Good listening and you'll even learn a few things... well worth the effort to listen to while driving, etc..

This is one of the best books I have ever read/heard. If you are interested in science of any kind, then I would definitely recommend buying this book.

Bryson has created a captivating review of not only what the many scientific disciplines currently believe, but also how they got there. If you enjoy learning about scientific knowledge and the evolution of ideas, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

What an enjoyable piece of work. The book is about the history of earth from a scientific, evolutionary perspective, but told by looking at the life and times of those involved in making the discoveries. The story is told in a light-hearted, humorous fashion.

I didn't give it 5 stars as there were points I found that at times it was too detailed for me, but my interest would be regained in minutes. I definately will be listening to the entire work again.

This book is a collection of little scientific facts about all sorts of phenomena like global warming, the big bang, dinosaurs, evolution, etc... Some parts of it, particularly when he discusses biographies of different scientists, get a little tedious. The book isn't too long, though, and he is great at putting things in non-scientific terms. I would recommend it if you already like sciency things, but if not, you might end up listening to only half of it.