"Humans were once thought to be systematic thinkers, then thought to be stupid, then finally proven to be systemically stupid." ( )

Funny, but also (slightly) informative. Does a pretty good job of lumping all (ish) of science into just six categories, and summarizing each one in a sentence or two, plus a one or two more for various sub-disciplines. As the preface explains, it does however exclude "Anthropology and its important subdiscipline Sociology, as well as Economics and its important applied field, Evil." It also excludes Mathematics, but I'll leave you to read the reasons why in each case.

This is a follow-up to the author's "Holy Bible Abridged...", and I enjoyed it quite a bit more, perhaps because I'm frankly more familiar with the source material. ( )

I almost feel a little weird putting this on my "books read" list, just because it's so tiny. It's less than five inches tall and all of 52 little pages, with lots of whitespace. It look me maybe fifteen minutes to read the whole thing. But they were fifteen really fun minutes. I was chuckling out loud to myself the entire time, which was mildly embarrassing since I was in public, but I regret nothing.

Basically, it's exactly what it says on the tin: real science, condensed to the point where it becomes useless, but funny. For instance, here's the first bit, on the history of physics:

Aristotle said a bunch of stuff that was wrong. Galileo and Newton fixed things up. Then Einstein broke everything again. Now, we've basically got it all worked out, except for small stuff, big stuff, hot stuff, cold stuff, fast stuff, heavy stuff, dark stuff, turbulence, and the concept of time.

It's funny because it's true! Actually, "it's funny because it's true!" was my reaction to the whole thing. I have a strong background in science, though, and got pretty much all of the jokes. I have no idea whether it would still be funny to someone who didn't. Possibly it would be funny in entirely different ways.

Basically, it was a tiny nugget of delight for my nerdy, nerdy soul. ( )

Indeholder "Preface", "Introduction for the Teacher", "Introduction for the Student", "1. Physics", " 1.1 History", " 1.2 Major Insights", " 1.3 Subdisciplines", " 1.4 Recent Developments", " 1.5 Important charts", "2. Chemistry", " 2.1 History", " 2.2 Major Insights", " 2.3 Subdisciplines", " 2.4 Recent Developments", " 2.5 Important charts", "3. Engineering and Applied Science", " 3.1 History", " 3.2 Major Insights", " 3.3 Subdisciplines", " 3.4 Recent Developments", " 3.5 Important charts", "4. Biology", " 4.1 History", " 4.2 Major Insights", " 4.3 Subdisciplines", " 4.4 Recent Developments", " 4.5 Important charts", "5. Earth Science", " 5.1 History", " 5.2 Major Insights", " 5.3 Subdisciplines", " 5.4 Recent Developments", " 5.5 Important charts", "6. Cognitive science", " 6.1 History", " 6.2 Major Insights", " 6.3 Subdisciplines", " 6.4 Recent Developments", " 6.5 Important charts", "Acknowledgements".

If it's broken on the outside, tape it. If it's broken on the inside, kick it. ( )