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Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything (2nd Hand Hardback)
SKU B000451
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Original price
£3.70
Original price
£3.70
£3.70
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£3.70
Current price
£3.70
Synopsis
In the bestselling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the world of science both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.
Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller: but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us.
Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science.
It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out?
On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums like how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about many of his findings.
In the company of such extraordinary people, Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
Details
- Format : Thicker 2nd Hand Hardback with Dust Jacket
- Condition : Good
- Category : Non-Fiction - Science & Technology
- Published : 2003 (BCA Edition)
- ISBN : 9780385408189
- SKU : B000451
- PPC : SP800gm
- RRP : £20
- Quantity Available : 1 only.
External Reviews
"The man who reinvigorated travel writing transforms dry and academic subjects into compelling prose in this remarkable reinterpretation of science’s key achievements through time. Confronting topics such as geology and particle physics with energy and brio, Bryson’s masterpiece has turned millions on to the wonders of the scientific world." - Waterstones.
'The very book I have been looking for most of my life . . . Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes' - Daily Mail.
'Mr Bryson has a natural gift for clear and vivid expression. I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written' - Sunday Telegraph.
'A fascinating idea, and I can't think of many writers, other than Bryson, who would do it this well. It's the sort of book I would have devoured as a teenager. It might well turn unsuspecting young readers into scientists. And the famous, slightly cynical humour is always there' - Evening Standard.
The Author
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. His bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. In a national poll, Notes from a Small Island was voted the book that best represents Britain.
Featured Author . . . Bill Bryson