A Short History of Nearly Everything

I have to say, this book captivated me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for information, with which this book is loaded, but I got lost again and again in its pages.

When most people think "history of everything" they often think "history of mankind" and expect a story that starts with Neandertals and ends with the 21st century. However, Bryson truly covers the history of everything. At least everything that humans know. Or think they know.

Bryson starts with the instant the universe came into being, the size of the universe and its history. He stretches as far as the outer reaches of space and then dives deep into the smallest elements of matter. I now understand the makings of an atom better than I ever did in any science class. I understand a lot of things about science and history that I never quite got before because Bryson tells it in a way that I could understand. He avoids confusing jargon and explains, in simple terms, those things you'd otherwise scratch your head about.

One thing Bryson mentions throughout the book is the fragility of the earth and particularly humankind. We're basically freaks of nature living in the only type of climate that could sustain us, and if the smallest thing goes wrong, we could so easily go away. Things flying around us in space with no predictable trajectory, unsteady climatic elements that could cause extremely hot temperatures or extreme ice ages, human-made products that are destroying our earth and our bodies, things below the surface that threaten to damage the earth before we have time to stop them.

Humans are just a blip on the earth's timeline, and less than a blip in the vastness of time and space. Nobody but us cares if and when we perish, and it's really only a matter of time. Even thousands or millions of years is little compared to the age of the universe.

I look at everything around me with new eyes now. Not that this book has become my new religion, but my brain is full of bits of knowledge that have changed the way I look at my surroundings. My food, my car, my blood, my desk, plants and animals, the earth, the stars. This book showed me the reality of my insignificance while at the same time opening my eyes to wonder of the things around me.

I'll definitely read it again in a few years when the wonder has worn off.