A Brief Summary of "A Brief History of Time"

Reently I read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, and actually found it quite enjoyable! I thought he did a great job of making something as complicated as theoretical physics easy to understand, and made it interesting to read. Hawking writes with a style that is very unique, he casually puts sarcasm throughout the book while maintaining a professional, yet easy to read, style of writing. The purpose of Hawking writing this book was for the common man to read (although to be fair, if you are reading up on theoretical physics you probably aren't the 'common man'), and to share his vast knowledge of the universe in a way you don't need a PhD to understand. Although this isn't the first comprehensive physics book, it is one of the easiest to understand, which explains its massive success. How Hawking appeals to his audience is remarkable, and I think he does that through his tone. Hawking throws hundreds of years of physics at you, but still manages to make you feel like so little is known, and shows you how insignificant everything really is. For example "One possible answer is to say that God chose the initial configuration for reasons we cannot hope to understand" (Hawking 127), and being facetious by using words like "ain't" when talking about extremely complex theories.

In "A Brief History of Time" Hawking covers topics ranging from string physics to black holes to time travel and the origin of everything.  I would recommend reading this book if you are interested in physics, and on a scacle of A-F I would give this book an A. Read it!