A Short History of Nearly Everything

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [1] 3. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley 4. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette Mccurdy 5. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris 6. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe [2] 7. Cosmos by Carl Sagan 8. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins [3] 9. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 10. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander [4] 11. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 12. Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan [5][6][7] 13. Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism by Richard Dawkins [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076596 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47452253 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326741 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539535 [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751771 [6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740712 [7] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739256

Hard to choose for myself who made the post. But some of my favorites are - 1. God: The Failed Hypothesis Book by Victor J. Stenger 2. The God Delusion Book by Richard Dawkins 3. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Book by Antony Beevor 4. A Song of Ice and Fire Novel series by George R.R. Martin 5. A Short History of Nearly Everything Book by Bill Bryson 6. Billions and Billions Book by Carl Sagan 7. Flowers for Algernon Short story by Daniel Keyes 8. I'm Glad My Mom Died Book by Jennette McCurdy 9. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad Book by Peter Bergen 10. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space Book by Carl Sagan 11. The Metamorphosis Novella by Franz Kafka 12. The Selfish Gene Book by Richard Dawkins Gun to my head, pick one? The God Delusion.

"Best" is always too hard - here are a handful that I love. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke The Crow Road - Iain Banks Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson Black Holes & Time Warps - Kip Thorne The Inventions of Daedalus - David E H Jones The Cuckoo's Egg - Cliff Stoll I hope one or two of those float your boat!

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Definitely not serious, but super fun: "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Another vote for A Short History of Nearly Everything. Eighteen years ago, I enjoyed that book so thoroughly that I started researching and writing my own nonfiction. The pay is terrible, but the work is fulfilling.

This one is really hard tbh. I don't think I could name one. There was a period where I worked in a warehouse and listened to audio books and college lectures and all those together allowed me to make connections I don't think I would have made otherwise. A very meaningful book I read was "A Short History of Nearly Everything" just because it showed me how much to the world there was to discover. It made me very optimistic. I haven't finished "The Brothers Karamazov" and I don't think I would call it a "meaningful contribution" to my life _but_ I do think so far it is one of the only books that has made me say "wow." Every sentence seems to be crafted to perfection and connect with you on a deeper level. I can't personally relate to it too well but I would say everyone should get to experience a bit of it. Besides those, I read a few auto/biographies which where interesting, I could relate to and gave me motivation and discipline.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Writing a Go Interpreter Writing a Go Compiler No One Cares about Crazy People I Heard You Paint Houses UNIX: A History and a Memoir Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine How Asia Works The Dream Machine Black Earth The Fabric of Reality Behave (tried twice, maybe third times a charm?) A Short History of Nearly Everything Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Genius: The Life and Science Richard Feynman Super Thinking Man's Search for Meaning The Cooking Gene The Vital Question: Why is Life The Way it Is (re-read) The Case Against Sugar The 15 Decisive Battles of the World The History of the Peloponnesian War The Beginning of Infinity The Book of Why

Non-fiction: - Factfulness by Hans Rosling - The War on Science by Shawn Otto - Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan - The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier Fiction: - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - The Magicians by Lev Grossman The non-fiction books were all incredible and highly recommended. I especially appreciate The War on Science as it is highly relevant in today's polarized and emotional political climate. The fiction books were good, for the most part. However, The Magicians might be the worst book I have ever read, not limited to fiction or fantasy. For more on that, ask. I managed to read significantly more books this year due to joining an at-work book club, which has been very nice.

Oh yes! A Short History of Nearly Everything is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it (Bill Bryson can write funnier than anyone I've read, apart from P.G. Wodehouse). I would just add a caveat that I read it first in junior high and it blew my mind. Maybe for someone who is read up a bit more, it might not be as mindblowing.

A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson -- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21.A_Short_History_of_Ne... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21.A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything) First half of the book changed my life, and second half is merely good. I wrote a full review [0], and eight years later, that first half has become one of my favorite reads ever. [0]: http://www.spaceponies.com/review-of-a-short-history-of-near... (http://www.spaceponies.com/review-of-a-short-history-of-nearly-everything-by-bill-bryson.html)

Here are the best books I've read over the last few months: - Lost and Founder - the founder of Moz shares his advice and experience from building a 40M/year company. I found the things he says about building a startup extremely insightful and practically useful. Reading it feels like having a dinner with a friend who shares with you the things he has learned in a very honest, down to earth way. Highly recommend it. - Rationality from AI to Zombies - probably the most influential book I've read in my life, profoundly changed the way I think. It's a collection of LessWrong essays on science and rationality. (recently they've released an an audio version by the way). - "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "Our Mathematical Universe" - two general popular science books I'm enjoying a lot. Haven't finished reading them yet, but so far they're brilliant(and very easy to understand, authors do an amazing job explaining complicated things in a simple, accessible way).…

A Short History of Nearly Everything I read it at ~18 and can easily draw a direct line between it and going into research, but I wish I had read it a few years earlier and became interested in science sooner. Maybe I would've actually done my homework in high school.

I read a short history of nearly everything earlier this year. It was quite insightful!

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson). It's a cursory overview of all of history (title) from the dawn of time to the evolution of humans. It seems to be only slightly dated in some information, but really interesting to learn how the knowledge we assume is true today came to fruition over time. Before that, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Ben R. Rich) Such an awesome book about not only the engineering feats achieved by Lockheed Martin during the Cold War Era, but the incredible ability to keep developments secret from the mostly everyone. If you want to know more about the purpose of Area51, check it out.

A Short History of Nearly Everything -- Bill Bryson

"A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. The best science book I've ever read, recommended for anyone.

I adore "A Short History of Nearly Everything". I have re-read it more times than I can count, by just picking it up, flipping to a random page, and reading from there. All of his books are good, but that book has a special appeal for anyone who appreciates science.

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything Excellent popular science intro to, well, nearly everything. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, fast and slow Absolute recommendation. Is changing my perspective on myself and the world with every chapter.

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

I'm currently reading This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works, a regretfully titled yet excellent book. [0] Edge.org, in its annual question to prominent scientists and 'thought leaders', asked them "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?" My favorite ones so far include the many offshoots of natural selection and evolution, plus all of the stuff about the brain. I recently finished The Cold War: A New History, a great primer to how we got to the geopolitical situation we are in now (at least the major western/eastern powers), and A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was an awesome birds-eye view of modern science. ★★★★☆ to both. My next book is going to be about AI; let me know if you have any recommendations. (I'm not sure I'm ready for GEB.) [0] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062230174/

Permission Marketing - Seth Godin, made me think about what he calls interruption marketing. Purple Cow - Seth Godin, made me think about standing out. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries, really changed the way I think about... Well, nearly everything that costs effort. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins, good theory about why God most probably doesn't exist. The magic of reality - Richard Dawkins, great story about evolution, religion, etc. A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson, brilliant book. Perfect summary of our scientific advancements during the last centuries. He made me think about possible natural disasters.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

I've never read a book, no matter how weird or even badly written that didn't have a bit in it somewhere that stuck. There is gold to be found just about everywhere. A single book that has changed your way of thinking, and I would assume that you meant 'in a positive way'? For me if I had to point at a single book it would have to be Bill Bryson, A short history of nearly everything. It shows besides being a very compact overview of how we got where we are today how often we repeat our mistakes and how easy it would be to make this world a much better place than it is today and which forces are holding that back. It changed maybe not my way of thinking but definitely my view of the world in a way that changed how I lie my life. I used to be an idealist thinking that we could achieve some lofty goal of human accomplishment during my lifetime (for instance, an end to wars of commerce) but now I realize that we may not realize that goal ever. So, effectively this book freed me from fighting windmills and freed my resources to try to improve the lives of those directly around me instead of on a larger scale. The effects have been pretty dramatic.

Just want to second ASHNE by Bryson. This is one of those books that you see in a lot of people's backpacks when you travel to hostels - meaning that when you cannot carry tons of stuff, people choose this book...Thought-provoking and interesting.

Currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. So far, it's a really charming history of science (and well, everything else), starting from the Big Bang. Bryson has never let me down before. I just finished Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. That was an intense book! If you like deep sea adventure or anything U-boat, it's a worthy read.

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking

"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It's not a technically a business book, but it's incredibly interesting for anyone who enjoys science. It does have one good business-related concept - it reinforces the idea that just having the best idea doesn't always make you successful or rich - it's the execution that counts.

1) Musashi's Book of Five Rings 2) Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People 3) Machaivelli's The Prince 4) Sun-Tzu's The Art of War 5) Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action 6) Steven Johnson's Emergence 7) Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel 8) Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything 9) Mark Buchanan's Nexus 10) C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain Taken together, these books cover just about everything there is to know about the sciences, about human history, human nature and how to understand and communicate effectively with other people. Only one other book besides these needs to be studied/read: The Bible.