bill bryson a short history of nearly everything review

If the universe had formed just a tiny bit differently … then there might never have been stable elements to make you and me and the ground we stand on.” (p. “What is extraordinary from our point of view is how well it turned out for us. For example, in his astonishment at the dimensions of the known universe and our discoveries about its origins, he marvels: But reading the book through Christian eyes, it’s impossible to miss the holes and half-truths in Bryson’s analysis. Granted, religious history is not his topic. Who knew that one tenth of the weight of a six-year-old pillow is ‘sloughed skin, living mites, dead mites and mite dung’?īut A Short History also offers much cause for concern. The aim is to make science accessible and interesting to the average reader, and with his trademark panache and wit Bryson combines careful research with wonderfully personalised tales of the famous and often quirky characters who figure in the history of science.įrom the Big Bang and the breadth of the entire cosmos, right down to the most microscopic level of life, the book is filled with fascinating facts and eye-popping statistics. It is a fabulously well-written book, full of absorbing insights into not only what we know about the world, but how we know what we know. This is not to say that A Short History is without redeeming qualities. But he does so with literally no more than a few passing references to God along the way, replacing him with science and human achievement. From such a gifted writer, I admit I had hoped for much more.īryson, an acclaimed travel writer, recounts mankind’s greatest discoveries, ponders the mysteries of the universe, and analyses what has motivated the greatest minds throughout history. After digesting his 420-odd pages of scientific ‘history’, I can only assume that he is an atheist. Reading Bill Bryson’s new book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, was, for me, a profoundly disappointing experience. “We are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life’s dominant species that it is hard to grasp that we are only here because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other random flukes.” (p.

Bill bryson a short history of nearly everything review