A Short History of Nearly Everything

'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is a non-fiction book published in 2003 by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is an American writer famous for humorous non-fiction books, most notably travel books. These books generally relate their subject matter by looking at historical perspective and relating ironic or humorous accidents, personal histories and actions.
Bill Bryson originally conceived this book as a rebuttal of the traditional scientific text book and wrote it to inspire a passion for understanding the whos, whys, hows and whens of science.  

'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is best described as a rough guide to science and explores the sciences of chemistry, palaeontology, astronomy, particle physics, evolutionary theory and geology among many others. It is one of Bill Bryson's most critically acclaimed books and has won several literary awards.

The key charm of this book is that all of the scientific explanations are given context and made simple through the use of historical tales and humour.  For example, when detailing the history of palaeontology, Bryson relates a story of a palaeontologist who after miscounting the number of fingers and toes on a fossil, blocked access to the fossil for other researchers for forty-eight years out of embarrassment. It did not help that this fossil was one of the most important finds of recent history.

'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is peppered with these intriguing tales which lend amusement to the text and make nearly every scientific discovery and concept interesting. It should be noted however, that due to changes in scientific knowledge in the past twelve years, a small proportion of the information provided by this book is now out of date. But even with this 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' remains one of the most engaging non-fiction books ever and is well worth a read.

It is available in both book and audiobook formats.

Bill Bryson's Website: Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything Amazon.com: A Short History of Nearly Everything Book
A Short History of Nearly Everything Audible.com: A Short History of Nearly Everything Audiobook

Doubleday Publishers, 2003, A Short History of Nearly Everthing book cover, image, The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, viewed 2 November 2015, < http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/sites/samueljohnson/files/Short%20History
%20of%20Nearly%20Everything%20by%20Bill%20Bryson.jpg >.