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)

one of the best books I have ever come across

Magnificent story, great detail an uncanny way of explaining the most complex scientific concepts in the easiest to understand mannerpossible

Thoroughly enjoyable!

I really enjoyed this book. The story was captivating and supported by an excellent reading performance.

Bryson makes science fun!

I love the way Bill Bryson makes the science we learned in high school accessible and interesting. His humor is refreshing.

I don't like the choice of readers for this book. Richard Matthews had a somewhat stuffy air when reading the book, and some of the humor seemed to slip right past him.

Short, but my ADHD would prefer shorter

Really good stuff, clever writing... yet there were a few really slow parts for me. Abridged maybe better? Depends on what gets cut?

Phenomenal, but needs an update badly!

A spectacular, witty, and often quite humorous recounting of the most important points in scientific advancement.

HOWEVER! It desperately needs to be updated. After all, science and scientific discovery has not just sat still since this books release over ten years ago! Major developments in our understanding of life and the universe have been accomplished. For that, the book, as it now stands, is vastly incomplete, though still quite remarkable.

Exactly what a Lay-person like me needed!

Where does A Short History of Nearly Everything rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book has got to be one of my favorite books ever! The only thing I didn't like about the unabridged version was that I prefer hearing Bill Bryson read his own books. It just seems funnier to me. However, that was the only real complaint I had.

What did you like best about this story?

The best thing about this book is that it attempts (and succeeds in my opinion) to give the average non-scientist, everyday, regular person a brief explanation about basically everything that makes up the world around us.

I have always been a curious person but whenever I sat down to read about any of the sciences I could barely get past the first few chapters due to the book being way to dry or the fact that I couldn't understand most of the technical jargon. A friend of mine recommended this after I was ranting to her one day about the difficulties I was having. She told me that it would be perfect for me. A book about the sciences told from someone who had no experience in those fields. "He's normally a travel writer." she said. I told her that I would give it a try.

After a few more books that I attempted but couldn't finish, I picked this one up. Boy was I surprised! It was excellent! It's told by an author who has absolutely no background in sciences and so spent three years attempting to write a book for people like himself who had no real understanding of the world around them. Bryson talks about the history of science and the people who made the discoveries including some interesting quirks. There's nothing like receiving a Nobel prize for accidentally discovering cosmic radiation after you spent months trying to get rid of it so you could conduct your own experiments like Penzias and Wilson in 1964. Or discovering the first dinosaur bone, not recognizing that it was special and then losing it 100 years before the next one came around like the Reverend Plott.

Bryson succeeds in simplifying complex explanations down to something easily understood by the average person. If you have ever been interested in any of the sciences but can't bring yourself to read any of those mini-textbooks don't hesitate to pick up Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything. I doubt you will be disappointed and you may even want to continue on to other books to find out more information.

Good Luck and Happy Reading!

Truly great

Bryson has a knack for making complex ideas accessible to interested non-scientists. I tend to struggle with reading non-fiction (endless dates and names always take me back to high school history and I nod off) so for me the audio format is a dream come true.
The essence of the book may be a survey of what we know but the truly wonderful thing about it is the emphasis on exactly how much we don't know. I'm left feeling that this world is a much grander and more mysterious place than I gave it credit for. I'll certainly listen to this again.

Fasinating

I thought this book was extremely interesting. It will really appeal to those who like to learn for the sake of learning. So full of fascinating topics I recommend it to all who enjoy some factual dialogs presented in the most attention captivating way. One of my favorites.

Excellent!!

Among one of my favorite books. Second only, in genetics and evolution, to Dawkins' Selfish Gene!!

love this book

Have listened to this book multiple times and still get new information, I love it.