A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A charming book explaining the historic events and background that led to the scientific body of knowledge we have today. I wish I had access to this book back in high school, as merely mesmerizing scientific facts does not capture the excitement and ingenuity that went into their discoveries.

One thing I noticed was that most of the discoveries in the second half of the last century were made by wealthy people. These people had the most leisure time and without today’s constant distractions they kept busy by picking up hobbies such as geology, astronomy and even chemistry.