A Short History of Nearly Everything

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Bill Bryson

Length: 5 hrs and 47 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, traveling 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 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

"Destined to become a modern classic of science writing." (The New York Times Book Review)

Required reading

Everyone should read or listen to this book. Very informative and interesting, but a relaxing narrative voice.

I have no title

A great insight to how arrogant, stupid and brilliant humans are. Highly enjoyable and entertaining

Stellar

A book everyone and anyone would enjoy. Whoever you think you are you will be enlightened. Bryson’s mellifluous voice would elevate any narrative. But this is a tour de force.

This audio edition is abridged!

As I listened to this book, I had the feeling that it was missing a lot of details, explanations, and Brysonisms though it was nonetheless enjoyable. At the very end, I realized that this is an abridged version due the the crediting of an abridgement editor (I hadn't noticed that the abridgement notice on audible). The audio recording is only about half the book. No wonder it seemed sketchy. From what I've read of the book, it seems much better. I hope that Bill or Random House will put out a recording of the whole book.

Listen to this book with your kids!

I admit I am a big Bryson fan, but this is his best book yet. I'll let others speak to content, but I wanted to urge parents to share this book with their kids. I read the unabridged hard copy, then downloaded the abridged version so I could share it with my daughters - ages 10, 16, and 18. We listened on a long road trip through Montana. If you can believe it, they all cried when it was over, touched by Bryson's poignant message at the end about our place in the universe and the attendant responsibility of being at the (current) pinnacle of evolution. When we got home, my two older daughters immediately went to the bookstore to purchase their own copies so they could read the entire book again. It's gotta be good when your teenagers can't put it down. And it has generated great family conversation about a wide variety of topics ever since. Listen to this book. It will make you a more interesting and interested person . . . .

One word after I finished, W O W!

Excellent narrarating, not just a mono tone educational listening, but shows character and personality. Flows from one subject to the next on nearly everything smoothly. This is one you may want to burn, definately does have high replay value. I plan on listening to it again in a few months myself. If your religion is against science, and have a rough time with evolution, this may not be for you though. It gets all five stars from me, thoughly enjoyed it.

A pleasure to listen to

As a scientist, I often find books designed for the nonscientist to be oversimplified or simply wrong. This book is rigorously accurate while presenting the material with a clarity and precision that keeps you both interested and informed. I give this audio book the highest rating as the most enjoyable I have listened to of the past 30 audio books I have enjoyed.

The author is also the narrator, and he is excellent. He makes the subjects of particle physics, anthropology and geology exciting and he presents the material with a mixture of timeline and relevance that brings everything together. Only at the very end does he present his opinions about all this, and they are worth listening to, but regardless of your views, you will enjoy the book.

This is as good as it gets. You owe yourself a listen.

String theory and big bang for the comon man

Between the library and the internet I listen to two to three books a week, and this has remained my number one recommendation since I heard it almost a year ago. Imagine, an explanation of the smallest known (or theorized) particles in the universe to the expanse of the universe itself. But most of all Bill Bryson makes it fun. If you enjoy knowing a little about everything but not too much about anything, if you're trivia fanatic, if you simply enjoy learning, this is a must. Perhaps the best compliment I can offer is the fact as soon as I finished "A Short History" I immediately began to search for other works by this author (and they're all good too).

Excellent

Brilliantly compiled and wonderfully delivered. I think it works well in audio format.

Wonderful weaving of historical development

A simply great book. I was amazed at how the author was able to interconnect so much historical technological and natural science development, all with a bit of humor and sly understatement. It reminded me of much of my schooling from grade school through to university and then some: I came to appreciate facts in a wholly different and much more fascinating way. One of those books that you're sad it actually comes to an end.