15) A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

As a lapsed scientist myself, not a huge amount of this book was new to me, but I can see why it is popular with people who have never had to crack open a science textbook since leaving school, or even with some who have. Bryson's chatty style, which hasn't always worked for me, carries us ( Read more... )

16) Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson ( Read more... )

18) Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson. A good read on the history of English, including light on the "vulgar monosyllable" that slovobooks has sometimes muttered about writing up. But a lot of it was recycled from other books on the subject I have read, and some of the facts have dated (five languages spoken in Yugoslavia, for instance). But it's probably a ( Read more... )