#28 Buy and read Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything

Status: Learned

Well, I didn't buy it – it was a birthday present from Jackie – but Bill Bryson's brief yet thorough guide to the universe is an extraordinary read.

The subject matter remains suitably intellectual, but Bryson handles it with such deftness and profundity that reading about 13 billion years of history becomes hugely enjoyable – and very funny.

Bryson relates countless mind-blowing facts about the universe, some you would never have considered, and others you'll never be able to fathom.  From the Big Bang and the universe it created...

"In a single pulse, a moment of glory much too swift and expansive for any form of words, the singularity assumes heavenly dimensions, space beyond conception. In the first lively second (a second that many cosmologists will devote entire careers to shaving into ever-finer wafers) is produced gravity and the other forces that govern physics. In less than a minute the universe is a million billion miles across and growing fast. There is heat now, ten billion degrees of it, enough to begin nuclear reactions that create the lighter elements ... In three minutes, 98 percent of all matter there is or ever will be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich."

...to the rise of mankind and our ignorance at appreciating such a place...

"We are awfully lucky to be here – and by "we" I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp. We have arrived at this position of eminence in a stunningly short time. Behaviourally modern human beings – that is, people who can speak and make art and organise complex activities – have existed for only about 0.0001 percent of Earth's history. But surviving even that little while required a nearly endless string of good fortune."

A Short History Of Nearly Everything ultimately opens your eyes to the phenomenal universe around us - and everything in it - and develops a great appreciation for life itself.