Francis Bacon famously said, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested." But A Short History Of Nearly Everything is such a delicacy that no matter how you have it, it always leaves a delicious taste. Whether you read it in parts, or skim through it, or take a dive, there's always something that you didn't know before and makes you read more.
Bill Bryson is a non-fiction writer mainly popular for his travel books. He's not a physicist or a researcher of any sort to write a book on science. This is precisely where the strength of the book lies.
Bryson knows what it is like to find science dull and intimidating (like the way it is generally taught in schools). He therefore projects the story of 'the earth and everything thats on it', from his own view, that of someone who knew nothing about science as such. As he mentions in the introduction, "I didn't know what a proton was, or a protein, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't know how an atom was put together."
Bryson puts together everything - birth of the universe, solar system, basic laws, modern physics, biology, geology, palaeontology and even ecology. The result is a thick book with the greatest story ever told - the story of our creation and evolution, but the book is a delight from start to finish. A Short History Of Nearly Everything does actually contain nearly everything, but its Bryson's talent as a writer that he handles it all so well. He writes with the wit of Feynman and the simplicity of Hawking. Even most difficult topics like particle physics and classification of species seem easy.
Bryson calls the book a 'History' because instead of just plain facts, he actually traces people and events that led to those facts. Thrown throughout the book like little gems are these anecdotes, about famous (and unknown) scientists and their obsessions (weird, most of the time), that always bring a smile to your face (though some make you feel sad). Take this for example - On hearing Darwin's theory, the wife of an aristocrat wrote in a letter, "Descended from apes! My dear let us hope that it is not true and if it is, not many people come to know about it." There is Issac Newton, a brilliant albeit strange character who "inserted. . .a long needle . . . . into his eye socket and rubbed it around . . . . just to see what would happen." There is Henry Cavendish, discoverer of Hydrogen and who calculated the value of G, and who was such a recluse that "even his housekeeper communicated with him through a letter". And there is this Carl Scheele who "somehow got convinced that Gold could be extracted from human urine (maybe due to the colour)" and who performed all sorts of experiments, eventually discovering Phosphorus. The book is full of them.
What Bryson has done is commendable but nothing is perfect. There are parts in the book where you can feel the grip loosening when he is out of his comfort zone. He is at his best when he can link to people, places or events, but while explaining pure facts, without the use of mathematics he is not the same. Well, as I said, nothing is perfect but we can always try. That's what Bryson does and if for nothing else, read this book for an excellent and brave attempt.
