1. A Short History of Nearly Everything

By: Bill Bryson
http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X/sr=1-1/qid=1162142059/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6363344-6132963?ie=UTF8&s=books

I happened upon this book on Amazon.com while purchasing some other things. Being the perpetual student that I am (I've finally stopped going to school after about 22 years, now I'm simply a student of life) I saw this book and it piqued my interest right away. The thought that went through my head about that time went something like this: "Just think, if I can make it through this 560 page book, I'll know just enough about so many things that I may actually be able to become the good conversationalist I've always wanted to be." That's assuming that I can make it through the book in one piece.

I started reading this book last week, to get a start on my 52 book year and my heart sunk a little. I read the introduction and was thrilled to get started. The author would discuss the things in this book that some people (perhaps just a bunch of us so-called "nerds") wondered about, but never got adequate answers to, such as: How do we know what the core of the earth looks like if no one's been "down there" to see it first-hand? I thought to myself, "I never really cared about science enough when I was growing up to really care how they knew about it (I was just happy to make it through class without falling asleep), but now that you mention it, how do they know?" The author also claims that he will speak to all the uber-nerds (i.e. scientists) to find out how all this stuff works and then filter it for the not-so uber nerdy so that we can comprehend it with our small brains. Great! That's just the book for me.

The first chapter, as you can imagine what would be discussed in a book about everthing, was about the "Big Bang" and the beginning of the universe. WAY over my head. It took all I had to make it through that chapter and onto the next one about supernovae. Not surprisingly, I haven't approached this book with the furvor that I normally have when I have the time to read a new book. However, I will not give up my quest to learn a little bit about "nearly" everything. Without that knowledge, how would I ever reach my goal of becomming a Renaissance (Wo)Man? Looking at the bright side of this, the Big Bang is supposed to be difficult to understand. Once the book ventures closer to the period of my being, surely I will pick things up easier, won't I?