When I read this book it changed my life. Then again, reading this book and my life changing may have been co-incidental but when I had finished “A Short History…” I knew that I was
a) completely in awe of science, nature (not the journals) and chance and
b) a full-blown atheist.
Bryson considers each major area of science at a time and walks the reader through all its major achievements and discoveries. It takes a lovely personal spin on things as he gives the big names personalities and stories, and reminds us how the real thinker behind an idea is often not credited.
Being a non-scientist, Bryson manages to take us to great scientific depths without ever becoming too technical, so this book is ideal for anyone with a respect or a curiosity for science or anyone who just needs a little perspective on human life.
The cover promises a story full of “wonder and delight” – true, but given the frequent reminders of various disasters that, statistically, should soon befall the Earth, one might add “panic” to the feelings this book inspires.
But given the amazing string of coincidences that lead to life being here in the first place, we shouldn’t really complain if this lucky streak were to end.
This book has some brilliant quotes, like calling humans “the living universe’s supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously”.
Bryson is obviously a very good travel writer, but taking a stroll through the universe with him is undoubtedly my best Bryson-reading experience.
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