Ratings311
Average rating4.2
Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
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Lots of great little nuggets of knowledge in this book - almost too much to take in and remember properly. If I'd been thinking of it at the beginning, I would've highlighted the interesting stuff as I went so that I could go back and easily remember/find it later.. but since I didn't I may have to read this again someday.
The first half I was able to keep going through the slower parts no problem because of the anticipation of more knowledge, but by the 2nd half the clever stories seemed to be less and less and it was more and more stats, data, etc and I found myself losing interest.
It could also have been due to a baby who didn't want to sleep and so I was reading it on little to no sleep. :)
This was a great book for zoning in and out. Sometimes subjects I found completely boring, but others I was so engrossed in.
Overall the book made me feel a bit dumber, so I think that really means I got a bit smarter at just about nearly everything.
I listened to this book on audible, narrated by Richard Matthews which was awesome. The narrator did a great job and was very enjoyable to listen to. The book itself took on a tall order, nearly everything is a lot of stuff. But I felt it was neatly organized and told a great story and managed to do it with some humor.
My take aways from the book were that we are far less certain about the things we know about the world than I was led to believe and that a surprising amount of things we've learned were learned really quite recently.
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