Book review: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

If you want a short book, this is not the one for you. While the title employs the word 'short', the book itself contains over five hundred and fifty pages!

Saying that, this book is one of the best I have read in a long time. After studying for a Literature degree, anyone who has also done this must have had a thirst for some non-fiction on their personal reading lists. Although I love any fictional form, I had a yearning for fact. The idea that something is written, and what is being written about is real, that amazed me when reading this book. All of the theories and the musings on science were genuine. Everything that frightened or delighted me was true. I began to see what scientists meant when they said that science, or where our existence stems from, is miraculous. Of course there's the odd bit about rock formations that isn't quite as interesting as, lets say, the unusually easy-to-understand explanation of Einstein's em=c2 theory of relativity. All in all, however, it is a thoroughly interesting and educational read (without it feeling like a boring text book!).