Current read - A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

I have to say this is one of the greatest books ever written. I haven't read all there is to read in this world, and I never will ... but even so, this judgement will ring true.

The facts are quite astonishing, as is the storytelling, but what fascinated me time and time again ... and I am only as far as page 160, is the shape taken by people's lives. People's lives are always more interesting than their incidents, given the human sympathy inherent in their experiences.

There is the genius of Newton, who stood head and shoulders above all others (including Einstein). Newton stuns not just with his accomplishments, but also with his quirks, making him the quintessential mad legend that has been the stuff of lore for ages. Whether it is his attempt to put a big needle in the space "betwixt his eye and the back of the bone surrounding its socket".... "just to see what might happen" or his attempt to stare at the sun for as long as he possibly could, or his assertion to Halley that planetary orbits were elliptical, Newton's story is downright fascinating. The part where he deliberately made the Principia unreadable to the lesser mortals with its obscurity, so he would not be hounded for explanations or discussions is just a bland testimony to his own elevated orbit.

Einstein on the other hand, did not begin to speak until he was 3 years old. He produced the Special Theory of Relativity (the first of the 2 Relativity Theories) while he famously was still a 'Patent Clerk, Third Class' at the Swiss office. Just before/after he published the theory, his application to promotion as 'Patent Clerk, Second Class' was rejected !! He also was unable to find work as an Associate Lecturer at a local University. His leaps of intuition that formed the Special and General theories of Relativity are just awe-inspiring. He has to be the aphoristic divine being having a human experience.

There are a number of stories of Geologists, Zoologists, Chemists and Botanists who made stellar contributions to their fields but were just not recognized despite earnest efforts at publication and or marketing. Something beyond human effort and tribulation seems to be at play at all times insofar as human fulfillment is concerned ... I guess the examples stretch beyond Science, what with a desparate Van Gogh shooting himself in the chest, and even failing at suicide, only to be celebrated posthemously!

Apart from all the magnificient stories, this book really leaves you with a sense of an aggregate perspective of human endeavour, compressed and racing through the pages. And that, is like watching a brilliant movie at a rate of knots. The facts, and their unfolding or the absence of their unfolding, simple keeps you asking for more, even as you contemplate your own purpose.