I just finished this book by Bill Bryson and I have to write about it. This is a great book!
Right off the bat, Bryson admits that he didn't know much about almost everything. So he set out to meet experts in various fields of geology, chemisty, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics etc and at the same time, read as much as he could and then aim to put that in a readable format that the Average Joe could understand.
And this book seems to be a success in that regard. Also, the guy has a great writing style, quite funny throughout the book.
Some of the things that he talks about in the page-turner are:
-Did you know that if Earth was the size of a pea, Jupiter would be 30 meters away. And Pluto would be 16 kilometers away. In his words, "So the idea that aliens come from outer space to scare some farmer on a lonely dirt road late in the evening or to make crop circles seem pretty remote."
-The amount of fosilized bones that have been found and that we base our knowledge of evolution on would fit into the back of a pick-up truck (probably a Chevy, not a Thai Toyota.)
-Even if we could hit an Earth-bound meteorite with a missle powerful enough to blow it to pieces, those pieces would still follow pretty much the same trajectory and still slam into Earth...
-Yellowstone National Park is a ticking time bomb that when it goes, and it will someday, will kill everyone within 1,000 miles of it and will eventually lead to the deaths of most of the people on the planet.
The book goes on and on with stuff like this and is VERY readable. It's not a science reference book and it might not be for everyone. But I think most people will be glues to it. I almost started reading it again just after I finished it.