A short history of nearly everything

A short history of nearly everything
Author:Bill Bryson | Official Website | Wiki
Download pdf file here (I'm clearly dodging law...)

I was clearing up my over abused removable disk and came upon this wonderfully written general science book (among a sea of 'cookings', 'philosophy' etc.) It's a history book on science, from atoms bottom up to why we're what we are, sitting on top of the food chain in an infinite universe we're striving to figure out. The most remarkable feature I find about this book is, it's NOT written by a scientist. The facts were painstakingly gathered from authoritative scientists yes, and carefully churned and re-presented from a commoner's point of interest, a good sincere starting point which most of us would appreciate much more than standard textbooks facts that don't answer your curiosities without touching upon mechanical process and incomprehensible figures. Surprisingly Bill Bryson (BB for short) is a travel journalist and was the chief copy editor of the business section in The Times. He's downright humourous gifted with words. If you ever wonder about the mysteries of life, even a small question like 'why do I live on land?', you should probably take a peek at this book. (well, he might not address THIS question...)

A little on BB (from wiki)
William "Bill" McGuire Bryson, OBE, (born December 8, 1951) is a best-selling American-born author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on scientific subjects. He has lived for most of his adult life in the United Kingdom. On December 13, 2006 he was made an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature

In 2004, Bryson won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general-science book with A Short History of Nearly Everything. This concise and popular piece of literature explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also reveals their humble and often humorous beginnings. One "top scientist" is alleged to have jokingly described the book as "annoyingly free of mistakes".

Quotes from the introductory chapter of 'short history'
Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don’t actually care about you— indeed, don’t even know that you are there. They don’t even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse: to keep you you.

So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here. To be here now, alive in the twenty-first century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most— 99.99 percent— are no longer around. Life on Earth, you see, is not only brief but dismayingly tenuous. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.