Bill Bryson’s ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ is a fascinating read…. It amazed me in the same proportions as did Tim Flannery’s “Here on Earth”…… These books are beyond the small word ‘Wow’ for a non-science (nonsense) guy like me…. It catapults you to a whole different view of the world we live…..

When I read these now I wish I had been a better student as a kid….. We studied for ranks and marks and not much for the love of a subject that we would give our life for…… And I really wish that I could have been so amazed with wonder on what I learned back then, like I do now…. Some realizations are late, but late is better than never……

I want to share with you in wonder this amazing piece straight from Bill Bryson’s Book

“If you imagine the 4.5 bilion-odd years of Earth’s history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.

Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughout this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minute, somewhere on the planet there is a flash-bulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It’s a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long.”

After reading this I made sure I have a copy of this two paragraph always at hand just to tell me how small I am in this scheme of things when I compare with time and also to realize that in this short span of a human life some people have contributed so much to the progress of the world we live in.

As humans in this time what we need is every word that can make us as humble as we can be, be respectful and know that it is up to you to be make a big impact in such a short time….. Love all….

Categories: Book Reviews, Books

Tags: A short history of Nearly every thing", Bill Bryson