Welcome to the 10th trailstop. Before we start talking about A Short History of Nearly Everything (ASHONE) I'd like to introduce you all to our medium page. Go ahead and check it out for non-book based discussions
So 10th trailstop - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson does exactly what the rubric says, it tries to give a short history of a variety of topics ranging from disciplines like cosmology, geology, human evolution etc. The author Bill Bryson (famous for his travelogues like A Walk in the Woods etc) answers for us some of the most ubiquitous questions like Where did we come from?, How did all this begin? , What is inside the earth? to name a few. The book gained a lot of traction and achieved success for the sheer ease with which Bryson tackled what are essentially very scientific and academic topics.
So let us try to answer the 3 questions of Why, How and What.
Why did I pick up this book: I was aware of Bill Bryson's previous work and had followed him on social media. I really liked Bryson's personality and his typical wry sense of humour. ASHONE being one of his most famous works, I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to know how was Bryson able to declutter academic topics and make them comprehensible and interesting to a person without a background of science
What was this book all about: The book starts off with the author claiming that it is ignorance and his "unwonted by insistent urge" to know about the things that surround us, that drove him into 3 years of research and extensive study about the cosmology, astrophysics, geology, chemistry, anthropology and other sciences. The output of his meticulous probing was this tome of substantial heft. The book is about the origin, nature and stories about things and phenomenon that surround us. From the Big Bang to the shape of the molecule to the layers of the earth, ASHONE painstakingly takes you through all this and much more. It's a very succinct history of plenty of things.
How was this book to read: As I had opined in my review of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, very rarely do you come across books which are essentially encyclopaedic in nature, yet deliver an extremely fun, insightful and gratifying read. This book is in that very ilk. ASHONE's USP is the ease with which it sends across grossly academic and technical concepts like The Relativity Theory, The Plate Tectonic Theory and so many others to even a layman. The book, by the dint of the prose, makes you feel excited for the same topics you might have hated in school. Bryson too writes that
"There seems to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors to make certain that the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of mildly interesting and was always at least a long-distance phone call from frankly interesting"
We feel you, Bill, we feel you indeed!
All said and done, the book was indeed a fun read. For me, it was an extremely fulfilling read and made me realise the depths of my ignorance. Nearly every topic (barring the geology ones) had some information which was like a revelation to me. Such books most of the times, tend to be filled with jargon and too much information. ASHONE, for the most part, strikes a healthy balance between niche erudition and literary prose which would appeal to all.
What I did not like about this book: The book for me became a little too technical in some parts. For instance, the chapters dedicated to geology and the history of the study of the earth's constituents was a bit tedious for me. I caught myself drifting away in the face of excessive jargon and TMI.
Can this be your first book: As much as I had liked this book, I wouldn't recommend picking up ASHONE as your very first book. The hazards - well if you're not in the habit of tackling such thick books and that too non-fiction, you stand the chance to getting bored and hitting a standstill. If you really wish to pick up this book even as a beginner, my advise don't be too stuck upon finishing the book from cover to cover in a sequential manner. If you find some parts too recondite for your understanding, just move ahead selectively to those chapters or sections you like, and then once you have been acclimatised with the book and its style, attempt the omitted parts eventually.
Other books by Bill you can check out: I would really recommend to check out A Short History of Private Life and The Mother Tongue. These were really interesting books to read, go have a look.
So with this, we come to the end of our 10th trailstop. I hope you too, will enjoy learning about "nearly everything" and will find this book as fruitful a read as I did. Until then keep recommending, keep reading, keep sharing the love for more the passengers in the paperback trail the better.
So 10th trailstop - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson does exactly what the rubric says, it tries to give a short history of a variety of topics ranging from disciplines like cosmology, geology, human evolution etc. The author Bill Bryson (famous for his travelogues like A Walk in the Woods etc) answers for us some of the most ubiquitous questions like Where did we come from?, How did all this begin? , What is inside the earth? to name a few. The book gained a lot of traction and achieved success for the sheer ease with which Bryson tackled what are essentially very scientific and academic topics.So let us try to answer the 3 questions of Why, How and What.
Why did I pick up this book: I was aware of Bill Bryson's previous work and had followed him on social media. I really liked Bryson's personality and his typical wry sense of humour. ASHONE being one of his most famous works, I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to know how was Bryson able to declutter academic topics and make them comprehensible and interesting to a person without a background of science
What was this book all about: The book starts off with the author claiming that it is ignorance and his "unwonted by insistent urge" to know about the things that surround us, that drove him into 3 years of research and extensive study about the cosmology, astrophysics, geology, chemistry, anthropology and other sciences. The output of his meticulous probing was this tome of substantial heft. The book is about the origin, nature and stories about things and phenomenon that surround us. From the Big Bang to the shape of the molecule to the layers of the earth, ASHONE painstakingly takes you through all this and much more. It's a very succinct history of plenty of things.
How was this book to read: As I had opined in my review of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, very rarely do you come across books which are essentially encyclopaedic in nature, yet deliver an extremely fun, insightful and gratifying read. This book is in that very ilk. ASHONE's USP is the ease with which it sends across grossly academic and technical concepts like The Relativity Theory, The Plate Tectonic Theory and so many others to even a layman. The book, by the dint of the prose, makes you feel excited for the same topics you might have hated in school. Bryson too writes that
"There seems to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors to make certain that the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of mildly interesting and was always at least a long-distance phone call from frankly interesting"
We feel you, Bill, we feel you indeed!
All said and done, the book was indeed a fun read. For me, it was an extremely fulfilling read and made me realise the depths of my ignorance. Nearly every topic (barring the geology ones) had some information which was like a revelation to me. Such books most of the times, tend to be filled with jargon and too much information. ASHONE, for the most part, strikes a healthy balance between niche erudition and literary prose which would appeal to all.
What I did not like about this book: The book for me became a little too technical in some parts. For instance, the chapters dedicated to geology and the history of the study of the earth's constituents was a bit tedious for me. I caught myself drifting away in the face of excessive jargon and TMI.
Can this be your first book: As much as I had liked this book, I wouldn't recommend picking up ASHONE as your very first book. The hazards - well if you're not in the habit of tackling such thick books and that too non-fiction, you stand the chance to getting bored and hitting a standstill. If you really wish to pick up this book even as a beginner, my advise don't be too stuck upon finishing the book from cover to cover in a sequential manner. If you find some parts too recondite for your understanding, just move ahead selectively to those chapters or sections you like, and then once you have been acclimatised with the book and its style, attempt the omitted parts eventually.
Other books by Bill you can check out: I would really recommend to check out A Short History of Private Life and The Mother Tongue. These were really interesting books to read, go have a look.
So with this, we come to the end of our 10th trailstop. I hope you too, will enjoy learning about "nearly everything" and will find this book as fruitful a read as I did. Until then keep recommending, keep reading, keep sharing the love for more the passengers in the paperback trail the better.
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