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)

Informative and entertaining, a great listen!

This is one of my all time favorite audiobooks. I have listened to it at least 10 times and feel like I learn something new every time. The subject matter is complex but it is presented in such a straight forward manner with interesting anecdotal asides and bits of humor that it is easy to understand. Bill Bryson's voice is soothing, like listening to an old friend. I can't recommend this book enough. If you are interested in the world and universe around you, and would like to understand more about its origin and formation but you aren't an astrophysicist this is the book for you. It makes quantum physics entertaining.

One of the best books I've ever listened to.

Great book. Bryson does his magic with this book. One of the best I've ever listened to.

Fantastic book, fantastic performance

The book and performance of it was phenomenal! Even subject to which I have little interest (geology) are made fascinating. The subject flow into each other and the things you've learned about in lite bits throughout your life are verified and explained how they came to be. A definite must listen!

Amazing!

Bill Bryson is an amazing author and his voice really makes each of his books special! I've read the book send her the audio on just about everything he's done! Don't stop on this book there's so much more out there and he really brings it to life. That being said I would love to see an updated version of this particular book as lots of change since he did this one!

Only for a FAST mind

this book takes you from A-Z in no time, it very much reminds me of a documentary series called CONECTIONS aired on the discovery channel a few years ago where they told one story connected with the next and the next and so on. It is very well red and if you pay close attention to it you'll find you simply cannot drop it!
I truly recomend spending your time and money here.

Fun

This book was terrific! I am looking forward to hearing it again soon. Each day I found myself asking people if they knew some interesting concept, fact, or bit of science that I had discovered from this book. Often these conversations were with my 16-year old, so I am especially grateful.

The most memorable part of this book for me was the realization that our human history is so small next to the incredible and fragile history of our planet and universe. It was a very entertaining and interesting book.

Once again, I heard this book on the iPod. The quality of the production was very good and it was easy to listen to and follow the story.

Worth listening to

The author makes the discovery of so many scientific things easier to understand. If science in school were presented like this, linking everything together like it does, instead of presenting bits and pieces of things, I would have done better. Not for those who don't believe in evolution. It puts us in our place, and shows we don't know everything. It's very entertaining.

time well spent

Just a fantastic listen overall. It's a lot of material, but it is presented in such a fun and interesting manner that I was hooked from the first chapter. And the narration was just fantastic. There were a few parts that ran long, especially the "chicken little" moments, but you could do much, much worse with your time.

Good to listen to in short bits

This rather long history is fun to listen to in short spans. A 15 min train ride etc. To listen to the whole thing at one shot is a bit overwhelming.

Incredible insides into an incredible things

Excellent narration. The narration was well paced and I could not pause until I was done listing to the book.

Details facts from atoms to life on earth. The author breaks the facts into the following segments

- Atoms
- Universe and black holes
- Life on earth
- Evolution
- Anthropology
- Science and
- New scientific advances

Must read.