A review by simplymegy
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

funny informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

“But the thing is, most of the time bad things don’t happen. Rocks don’t fall. Earthquakes don’t occur. New vents don’t suddenly open up. For all the instability, it’’s mostly remarkably and amazingly tranquil.””

Bill Bryson’s herculean effort of trying to summarise the history of the universe, solar system, earth, cells, and humans into a 543 page book is nothing short of impressive. I began reading the audiobook version but found it difficult because it was so easy to tune out- there was too much information being fired that less than halfway through, i ditched the audio and switched to the digital version.

Some chapters were really dragging and boring despite Bryson’s effort at humour, but some i found genuinely funny.

“Romans also flavored their wine with lead, which may be part of the reason they are not the force they used to be.”

“The Sun is ninety-three million miles away. To move a couple of thousand feet closer to it is like taking one step closer to a bushfire in Australia when you are standing in Ohio, and expecting to smell smoke.”

“Whatever it was that drew them (ancient humans) to Europe, it wasn’t the glorious weather.” 

I didn’t particularly enjoy the ones about space. Maybe that’s just me- quantum physics and chemistry just isn’t my thing 😅. I did enjoy the ones about the earth and the origins of life and humans. The penultimate chapter about Sapiens reminded me of Yuval Harari’s one which I found truly insightful.

It’s definitely worth picking up to learn a little bit of everything, then realising that we know practically nothing.