Book 17 1/2

"A Short History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Science is cool!

Carmen got very, very sick of hearing this every night when she came to bed. I'd be reading this book and finding out something new (or possibly inaccurate) and I couldn't help spewing it out at her. 10 million kilometers of DNA in the human body? How cool is that!? Bacteria that can survive inside a nuclear react? How cool is that!?

Bryson's style in this, as my brother has said to me, is that of a ten year old discovering new things and running up to you going "guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat!?" and... well... spewing out a new fact (possibly misremembered, but who cares?). This book is conversational, engaging and smooth flowing. It's also pretty chucky, so don't be falling asleep in bed reading this one or you could break your nose.

Four and a half should-be text books out of five.