[dalbasal]

'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer. It surveys much of scientific knowledge roughly narrated as a history of scientific discovery and the development of science.

'Elegant universe' is a little denser. It's about as accessible as string theory gets, and that's surprisingly accessible. It also surveys a lot of scientific knowledge. For example, it has a very intuitive explanation of how knowing about the constant speed of light (Einstein) makes time travel possible. Also, it explains open questions that string theory is trying to solve, which are the big, TOE questions in physics currently.

Hard to beat Hawkins though. He heavily influenced and inspired these guys, an proved that hard science is interesting for everyone. Goodbye Professor. You will be missed.

[pan69]

> 'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer.

Bill Bryson normally writes travel books, so the way this book is written is not your standard science approach. This book in particular is very entertaining since the topic is out of the authors comfort zone.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is actually my favourite book to read while travelling, funnily enough.

[richrichardsson]

Bill Bryson is the author of "A short history of nearly everything" and it is a very good book!

[gk1]

At risk of being pedantic, his name was Hawking, not Hawkins.