#9 in Popular science
A Short History of Nearly Everything
- 624
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
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Our view
Bryson walks through the whole of science as a story about people: the triumphs, and the scandals, behind each discovery, told with a humour that carries along readers who would never otherwise open a science book. It is long, but the subject shifts so often that it rarely drags. Some admit they cannot retain it all; the gain is a sense of how we came to know what we know. Ideal for the curious non-specialist.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, A Short History of Nearly Everything is the biggest-selling popular science book of the 21st century and has sold over 2 million copies. 'Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.' Economist 'Truly impressive...It's hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.' Guardian 'A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide' The Times 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 civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. As a result, A Short History of Nearly Everything reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 1,147 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 89% of the weight and the score stays at 8.5 — the Popular science average of 8.3 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 101 | 9% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 18 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 1K | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Short History of Nearly Everything?
It has 624 pages — longer than 94% of the ranked books in Popular science.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Popular science — with scores between 8.3 and 8.6, closest to this book.
