Book: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Paperback, Special Illustrated Edition, 624 pages. 8" x 10" and 1.25" thick. This is a 3-pound 13-oz tome, jam-packed with photos, diagrams, illustrations, and of course Bryson's articulate and engaging writing. Perfect coffee-table book. Bought new, still nearly new. Minor cosmetic scuffs to the cover from having been shelved. "An exciting and informative journey into the world of science, this is a highly readable mix of astonishing facts, historical anecdotes, adept summary, and gleeful recounts of the eccentricities of great scientists. From the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from a state of no universe at all--to the reality of being us, here, now. A profound book, funny, clear, and entertaining. An adventure through the realms of human knowledge--into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer."