A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

I am terribly embarrassed that it took me about 10 years to read this book. I think it's partly because science interests me but on the other hand is so often rendered as hopelessly dry and plodding that it's easy to lose interest in reading about it. This book did go a long way toward making scientific concepts understandable to someone like me, but didn't necessarily inspire me to become more scientific - but that's a failing on my part rather than the author's. Overall I suspect I'll turn to this book when I need a refresher on some of the topics presented, and I'd like to see an updated version (which I think is in the works - ?) since things seem to advance so quickly now I'd be interested to see what may have changed since this book was originally published. Recommended.