Days of Future Past

I’ve been on a bit of a non-fiction reading streak lately. I recently finished Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach. I like it, but I don’t love it. [It was here, though, that I read about unmitigated bovine fascination. You may wonder what that could possibly have to do with scientific study of the afterlife. I would if I hadn't read the book. smirk.] I do love though that it reminded me that I had planned to write about A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, a book that I’ve read a couple times so far and that I do love. This book is a fairly comprehensive and humorous overview of what we know (and a great deal that, surprisingly, we don’t know) written for non-scientists by a non-scientist. I like the historical perspective on scientific inquiry and how what we think we know changes over time. I like the anecdotes about the people doing the inquiring. I like that he does a fairly good job of putting complex topics in relatively simple terms and tying it all together. Most of all, I share his curiosity and I appreciate the breadth and depth of his research.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mary Roach approaches serious subjects with humor. Some readers will, I think, find this a little off-putting in this case. Beliefs about the afterlife may not stand up to scientific scrutiny; perhaps they should not have to. Given that, Roach presents a fairly broad, if not especially deep, overview of the many facets of our search for an answer to the question, “What comes next?”


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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love this book. I first read it a couple years ago (and re-read it last fall). I think Bryson is best known as a travel writer and he brings humor to everything of his that I’ve read. Here he writes about science from the perspective of an interested non-scientist. I think this makes it a really good book for people that may not have a strong science background. It’s packed full of scientific facts and history wrapped in the foibles of the all-too-human scientists. Bryson puts complex topics in relatively simple terms and frequently points how how much we still don’t know about the world in which we live.


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