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pageboi31 's review for:
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Back when I first was looking into trying audiobooks, One of the top recommended authors I saw for his nonfiction was Bill Bryson. The first title that caught my eye was A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book both equal parts science and history as he truly covers "nearly" everything when it comes to the history of our planet, our existence on it and more. Plus, this edition was beautifully narrated by Richard Matthews, whose British accent added lots of charm and accentuated the wry humor Bryson wrote with throughout.
This was a harder listen for me. It might have helped had I borrowed a physical copy to help follow along, but the sheer amount of information and names made multitasking near impossible. I won't lie, there were several times I caught myself dozing off and had to rewind to reacquaint myself with the recent details I've missed. The main fault lies with me, though: I listened to this way too quickly. I didn't expect to finish this before it was due back, but I listened in large chunks and flew through it! I think I'd retain more had I slowly listened over several months instead of less than two weeks! It was like having my entire high school science experience in a week!
While I'm going to forget most of what I listened to, I think the things that stuck out to me most was the human aspects of science and progress throughout. Science was messy! We had eccentric guys like Cavendish and Newton whose brilliance was often not discovered until long later when they finally shared their studies; raging rivalries that surged progress (like with paleontology in the US and the structure of DNA) but lead to rushed findings and miscrediting. I think the passage that covered the Ohio inventor who created the blights that were lead in consumer products and CFC's was fascinating and sad...especially using your wealth to smother investigations into the harm you're causing both the environment and others.
This was also my first older audiobook! It was funny to hear the book disc continuation message all throughout. I do wonder how much science has advanced since its publication (it's over 20 years old now!); Besides the obvious like Pluto's reclassification, what other info has subsequently changed, or what research has greatly advanced since (space, evolution, ocean and underwater research, etc.). All I know is my little brain needs a science break!
This was a harder listen for me. It might have helped had I borrowed a physical copy to help follow along, but the sheer amount of information and names made multitasking near impossible. I won't lie, there were several times I caught myself dozing off and had to rewind to reacquaint myself with the recent details I've missed. The main fault lies with me, though: I listened to this way too quickly. I didn't expect to finish this before it was due back, but I listened in large chunks and flew through it! I think I'd retain more had I slowly listened over several months instead of less than two weeks! It was like having my entire high school science experience in a week!
While I'm going to forget most of what I listened to, I think the things that stuck out to me most was the human aspects of science and progress throughout. Science was messy! We had eccentric guys like Cavendish and Newton whose brilliance was often not discovered until long later when they finally shared their studies; raging rivalries that surged progress (like with paleontology in the US and the structure of DNA) but lead to rushed findings and miscrediting. I think the passage that covered the Ohio inventor who created the blights that were lead in consumer products and CFC's was fascinating and sad...especially using your wealth to smother investigations into the harm you're causing both the environment and others.
This was also my first older audiobook! It was funny to hear the book disc continuation message all throughout. I do wonder how much science has advanced since its publication (it's over 20 years old now!); Besides the obvious like Pluto's reclassification, what other info has subsequently changed, or what research has greatly advanced since (space, evolution, ocean and underwater research, etc.). All I know is my little brain needs a science break!