Histories of nearly everything have been out of fashion for some time,
the last bestseller quite possibly being
The History of the
World by Sir Walter Ralegh, which was written while its author
awaited execution in the Tower of London during 1608-09. It remained
immensely popular for over a century -- quite an achievement for a book
of a million words, weighing eighteen pounds -- though no one knows
what the reader might have faced had it not been for the work of the
royal executioner, who cut Raleghoff at 146 BC.
-- Tim Flannery "Would That Be Everything?"
(Times Literary Supplement, August 1, 2003, p.5.)
a review of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill
Bryson.