Here and There

I finished the audible.com version of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Everything, which had me a few paragraphs into its introduction. A few things therein were nearly identical to some thoughts I had been having, as I mentioned in a post last month.

First, like any good book, I was depressed when the narration ended, and the generic audible voice came on to spew the credits and thank me, the listener, for choosing audible-dot-com.

I had the file with me for about a month, on walks to work, during my “lunch” breaks, in Venezuela, on BART. Its stories of scientific theory, refutation, recalculations, discoveries, Eurekas, and more kept me company even when I wasn’t listening. I found so much revelance in and out of the book that I wanted it to last forever.

Thirty chapters, 544 pages, and right around 18 hours of audio from Bryson (and narrator Richard Matthews) will take any slightly interested reader on a thoroughly enjoyable ride through history, focussing mostly on the so-called natural sciences, like astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics, and biology. Its theme (spoiler alert) is simple: that the universe is an utterly amazing place, and it’s a wonder we have made it to where we are.

It’s a wonder Bryson was able to make it to where he is, given the enormity of the undertaking of writing such a thoroughly reported and written book.

A Short History of Nearly Everything will, if you’re anything like the geek I am, make you feel good about the big, dark, lonely universe we live our short, crazy lives in.

Highly recommended.

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