Unexpectedly good, although lopsided (A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson)

Member Name: thebrix

Product:	A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Date:	19/09/04 (79 review reads)
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I saw the author's name, realised he was writing well outside his experience - as he admits many times himself - and braced myself for a train smash. Actually, there was only a muted sound of tearing metal ...

The title is eloquent in itself; the book is a romp through most subject areas of in modern science, although there are some significant omissions which would certainly interest the general reader (meteorology and semiconductors, for two). I sympathise and agree with the author's reason for writing it - horror at dull, narrow textbooks where the equation is king together with disbelief that anyone would want to do the questions posed at the end of each chapter. The author's treatment of mathematics-based and non-mathematics-based topics is very different, however.

I am not qualified to comment in detail on the sections concerning biology, genetics and evolution, but I must say they are an enjoyable read and filled in all sorts of gaps in my knowledge.

I am qualified to comment on the chemistry, physics and astrophysics sections and, unfortunately, they are almost perfunctory compared to the others, skating over just about everything at a high level. I feel the author understood his limitations - hardly surprisingly given the arcane nature of the subject matter - and backed off; there are many better individual books if you really want to know what relativity, quantum mechanics or high energy physics is about.

Despite that dissent, the book is worthwhile - the author is incapable of writing a dull word - and would make a good school textbook (!) albeit with an alert teacher to point out its deficiencies.

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