A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

My first encounter with Bill Bryson - who sounds like a friendly, chatty neighbor pouring gossipy informations out of his sleeve and chuckling to himself along the way. He is maddeningly short in his little biographical portraits of scientists, researches and people who basically shaped our understanding of science, however along the way it becomes clear that this is a conscious style decision - how to squeeze centuries into a relatively short and easily digestive volume.

Bryson writes about science in a charming way - without ever being patronizing, he laughs, wonders and enjoys the subject - basically he does cover everything, from astrology, planets and asteroids (did you know that asteroids are passing by our planet twice a week?) to a life on earth, from micro- cosmos to a bigger picture. He also have a wonderful sense of humor - our head is nothing but a "big, oily bon-bon" for microbes living in our pillows - which is very welcome when dealing with potentially dry subject. Bryson tries to simplify things but he still got me lost on a several occasions (atoms, molecules and such) however he has to be complimented for making a best seller out of something like this.As he had already noticed himself, scientists often came to great ideas but were not able to communicate them well - we need people like Bryson to clear up the picture, make it more presentable and easier to understand.