A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson May 15, 2007
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I am not surprised this book was a hit back when it was published. It’s a perfect combination of scientific facts, and anecdotal notes about the researchers. This is exactly what is needed to make a college textbook so much more attractive to the students.
When I was a kid I loved to read about lives of people such as Newton, Lavoisier, or Darwin. Somehow for some 20 years I didn’t put my hand on any biography of a scientist, with the exception of A Beautiful Mind. Now I see how much I missed.
This is a must read book for anyone interested in popular science—physics, biology, chemistry, and astronomy.
A long while for many books January 22, 2007
Posted by Book Reader in Bill Bryson, Christopher Moore, Ernest Hemmingway, Graham Greene, Harper Lee, James M. Cain, Kim Edwards.add a comment
My daily commute pattern changed since I moved to my new house. This gives me at least two and a half hours for books every day! The effects of that are clearly visible to me: firstly, I run through books with blazing speed. Secondly, and that part I don’t like, I don’t have time for basically anything else. When I get back home from work I just spend the time with the kids and my wife and fall to bed. No time to post here, no time for hobbies. Well, that’s a clear indication that I’m too busy…
Books:
- Bryson’s Lost Continent (terrible, how could one so full of resentment spend so much time travelling??? Don’t read it.), Made in America (the history of American English—that one is much better, but too long for this kind of book. You just don’t assimilate that much information in a single go).
- To Kill a Mockingbird – a bit slow start, but the story then takes off, and I really liked it after a dozen pages or so. That’s funny, by the way, how often people like books narrated by a kid. Don’t you?
- The Postman Always Rings Twice – I would put it in a single category along with Capote’s In Cold Blood.
- Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel. Well, just like in the book—at the end it’s just as if nothing has happened. It was just pure waste of time.
- Kim Edwards’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – somewhere in the middle. Worth the time, if only it made you think about the consequences of a single lie, a single bad act.
- Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock – Good and evil, right and wrong. The language and setting is already too old to make the book exciting, but I am glad I read it.
- An attempt at a few Hemmingways. I could finish only one: The short and happy life of Francis Macomber.
Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson December 29, 2006
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This memoir describes the life of small town America in the 1950s. It’s full of funny stories, with the main character being the author’s alter ego, the Thunderbolt Kid, a character that could have made it to comic books of the era. I still smile when I recall the ingenious use of peanut M&M’s, the discovery of the mysterious substance under the theater seat, or the “lock the stalls” game.
I appreciated the nostalgia Bill Bryson (a 54 year at the time of writing) put into his book, but I cannot quite agree with the sorry tone describing the life in the US nowadays. Life’s different, that’s it. We can look for the best in it, and cherish it. Let’s.
5 of 5 in the “Memoirs” category
