A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

I just finished listening to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. I started listening to this after finishing his book about Australia called In a Sunburned Country which I wrote about recently as well.

I really enjoy Bill Bryson’s style of writing, it feels approachable to me. Without spoiling much of the book, the book is a high level overview of how “everything” came to be. Whether it’s the book you’re looking at or the audiobook, the length of the book in either case is not long enough to justify he would be able to describe nearly everything. But that’s the caveat, it’s a short history of nearly everything.

I finished the book with a sense of knowing more about some aspects of where the universe came from, how life came to be, and how humans came to be. It’s satisfying to be able to get that information in one place.

I think compared to In a Sunburned Country, I didn’t enjoy this book as much because it didn’t have the Bryson travelogue writing style which I really enjoyed, especially in audiobook form. But still, if you’re looking for a fun to read/listen book, this is a good one!