Book for Food, Book for Good

I am reading this paperback by Bill Bryson (yes, but who else).

Surprisingly for a tongue-permanently-in-cheek novelist, this one is in fact a rough guide to the birth and development of the thing called SCIENCE, aptly titled 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'. Gee, I didn't even have the slightest clue when I bought the book hastily at the Singapore airport bookstore for some 'light reading' on my Bali trip. Not a good move. Not light at all in any sense of the word.

Lucky for me - not only am I reading it, I am finding it tremendously entertaining and powerful. Gasp. Science? As in physics, chemistry, geology, biology, astronomy and a whole lot of abstract math? Good Lord, am I in my right mind?

Yes, yes and yes. You see, Bill is beyond interesting. He can write about the relation between the quality of toilets in North Dakota and the rate of growth of your toenail, and leave you amazed by the wonders of American sanitation and your own personal well-being.

And in between that he'll have you fall off the chair for laughing too hard.

In a word, he's BRILLIANT.

A word of caution though, this book is not an easy read, especially for those untrained in the sciences. However, Bill (who is not any scientist himself) tells the story in the most layman and entertaining manner, relating not only the facts and figures but jewels of anecdotes that you will never find in your science textbooks.

The breadth of coverage is so wide, and his historic characters so full of personalities that I cannot fathom how long he took to do his research, or how many books and people he had to plough through for information.

For once I am glad that I took my horrible science classes. At least now I could understand what was going on with the electron clouds and cosmic rays.

So there, I am looking forward to many more good nights with the book in bed accompanied by geniuses like Darwin, Einstein, Bell, Newton, Boyle, Hubble (yes, of the space telescope fame) and many more. I guess you should too.

Oh by the way, I have just established a life ambition...

To lunch with Bill sometime.