A Short History of Nearly Everything

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Richard Matthews

Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the world’s most beloved and best-selling writers takes his ultimate journey - into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In a Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail - well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand - and, if possible, answer - the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us.

To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

©2003 Bill Bryson (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc. Published by Arrangement with Random House Audio Publishing Group, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Not to be missed." (AudioFile)
"Destined to become a modern classic of science writing." (The New York Times Book Review)

an all too

I'm sorry for the folks who bought the abridged version of this title. Opting for Bryson abridged is pointless. His prose is already polished to a pearly economy.

If you can listen to the final 22 minutes of this book without cringing, crying, or resolving to affect change in the way all of us treat this magnificent and mysterious planet; you are a hard, hard case. With disciplined but entertaining prose, Bryson surveys the branches of science that explain who we are and how we got to wherever it is we are. Spectacular!

Fascinating science - - engaging writing.

I've listened to this over and over. I don't think I've ever said "Wow!" or laughed out loud so much when driving by myself. Although he deals with profound and far reaching subjects, from the Big Bang to geology to DNA, he does it in a way that is affable, and very understandable. Bryson is a first-rate writer, and his light English accent has a way of making his understated humor even more entertaining. Listening to this book, I felt, I still feel, profoundly aware of how wonderful it is that there is life at all in the universe, and how absurd we are when we fail to cherish and protect it at all cost. Bravo, Bill! P.S. Also loved "A Walk in the Woods."

Exceptional listen!

This was one of the first books I've downloaded and I couldn't have found a better introductory volume. Hours of fascinating facts and figures that are not only incredibly well-written, but are read with a style that kept me hooked throughout. Wonderfully dry humour, intelligently paced narration and thoroughly entertaining!

Outstanding. Smart and funny!

Bryson is a fine writer and this is among his best. Not only does he inform you wonderfully on all sorts of topics, notorious and arcane, but he does it in a manner as entertaining as it is learned.

What a joy!

Awesome Summary of Time

I found this vast summary of 'nearly everything' extremely entertaining and informative to listen to, from the formation of the universe, to the history of science, to the fossil record and early homonids. I rewound this book so many times over again that it took me nearly twice as long to listen to it. Highly recomended for anyone kind of nerdy or intellectual (same thing really)

Best book I've listened to in three years

I was so enthralled with this book that I really felt I had discovered something great myself. I love Bryson's humor, which consists of pointing out the truth and how strange that truth is. It's hard to imagine anyone tackling this subject and doing well by it, but he truly does. It's his best book to date.

Wow!

Great book. One I'll listen to again for sure. For anyone interested in general science, or anyone just curious how the world and universe works!

Very accessible and extremely well-read by narrator.

If you like science, or not, youll love this book

A specialist, they say, is someone who knows more and more about less and less; but how is the layman to keep up with partial physics theories that sounds like they were written by Douglas Adams, while staying fresh on the scientific history of the 1600?s? Bryson has compiled a wonderfully insightful, and incredibly amusing survey of science from the dawn of time to the edge of the universe.

I recently wanted to here a quote near the beginning of the book again, and accidentally listened to the whole seventeen hours. This book is engaging, and a delight to listen to.

Simply a MUST Read For Humans

I was going to say that this book is a must-read for anyone interested in science, but the reality is, everyone should read this book so they can be better educated about, well, everything!

The book presents what seems to be everything we know in science in a very entertaining and funny way. It's simply great!

A Short History of Nearly Everyting

If you listen to this book you will be left frustrated. Frustrated in yourself for having slept through high school biology and chemistry. Frustrated that while in college you were so focused on getting your degree that you didn't take that astronomy or geology class you wanted to. Frustrated that you haven't found time to pick up some of those same classes at your local community college. The breadth of this book is amazing. It will re-awaken the interest within us to understand the world around us. As other reviewers state, get the unabridged version. As is, it will end too soon.