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Have you ever wanted to know (nearly) everything about (nearly) everything pertaining to sciences of all kinds? If so, then Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything may be the book for you. As you travel through time and space with a witty and knowledgeable narrator, you learn about how the universe came to be, about how hard it was (is) to be a scientist, learn about how different theories and ideas were created, and much, much more. My only qualm with the book is that it is a long -544 pages long- and hard to read book, and it's only for people who enjoy the challenge, and are willing to work through it. I really enjoyed the book, as Bill Bryson writes in a casual but informative way that helps you to better understand, learn and enjoy what the book is teaching you.
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Here are some specific topics you will encounter in the book:
- How the universe started, and what it might become.
- How scientists figured out the size of the Earth without measuring it (which would be crazy).
- What would happen if a meteor crashed into the Earth?
- What would happen if a long overdue super volcano were to erupt? (The volcano is called Yellowstone National Park. Yup the whole thing is one huge volcano, and an eruption would be hundreds of times larger than the largest known eruption to date: Krakatau).
- The hardships that different scientists went through to get their ideas and discoveries out into the world.
Here's a video about the Yellowstone Park volcano:
Here's a link to the YouTube page in case you're having problems with the video.
Here's a PDF of the book, so you can read the first few pages and see what you think.
You took on quite the book. I've started this book and never have been able to finish it. I'm glad you learned a lot and maybe you'll finish it one day.
ReplyDeleteHello Mokhtar! I was assigned your blog to review. Overall, your blog was very good and covered all the topics, so finding corrections will be quite the challenge. :D Well, for starters, I know the book was long and was hard to cover all of it, but maybe you could work on describing the topics Bill Bryson brought up in his book more in-depth. For example, you just listed the topics he brought up, not described them more in detail. That's the only major mistake my eyes can spot, so I'll say what I liked about it. Your beginning was très bien, I especially like how you added in a nice hook to get your reader's attention. One more correction: I feel like you had such a nice introduction, so you probably should add an equally strong conclusion. Anyway, that's all! Very nice.
ReplyDeleteFascinating. It seems that the theories of Bill Bryson are both plausible and deadly. If an event such as a meteor striking the earth or an eruption was to happen in Yellowstone, larger than the 535 catastrophe, it's fascinating to see the outcome in such a short summary.
ReplyDeleteThis is very cool. I thought that the book would be less interesting than it actually is! Your blog was very good and the video was also very interesting.
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