I was a big fan of James Burke’s Connections series in high school. When Ben described Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, it sounded pretty sweet.

So far it’s a very fast read but I have to agree with the top Amazon poster - his dismissal of some core concepts as too difficult to worry about are pretty laughable. He explains the difference between mass and weight when discussing relativity, but then goes on to say that there is not much difference for us on Earth and that it does not matter. Otherwise, the tone is light and conversational and it is a very easy read.