A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For the last few months this has been my upstairs bathroom reading. The book worked quite well for that. I don't think I would have found it as engaging if I had sat down and tried to read it through.

It is really more a history of science than a science book, and that surprised me. Some of the chapters were filled with interesting characters and anecdotes and others bogged down. I had originally hoped it would give me a reasonably up-to-date understanding of various scientific theories. It did that, but only in the context of telling you the story of past theories and scientists, which isn't what I had expected when I picked up the book.

Bryson writes in an entertaining, non-academic style, so the book was both informative and enjoyable.

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