Bill Bryson

Dub13

I stumbled on a book of his a while ago and I am hooked what a great writer.Some very funny stuff.Does anybody else like his work...?

So far I have got through.

A lost Continent
Notes from A big Country
Notes from a Small Island.

quarryman

is any of those about him travelling across small town america? Read that one and it was great.

Also get his Short History of Nearly Everything.

Kernel

Dub13 wrote:

I stumbled on a book on his a while ago and I am hooked what a great writer.Some very funny stuff.Does anybody else like his work...?

So far I have got through.

A lost Continent
Notes from A big Country
Notes from a Small Island.

Yes, I like his writing style. Check out his 'Short History of Nearly Everything', a truly great and accessible book dealing which will give you a newfound respect for Science (not the dick from Big Brother).

grumpytrousers

He's an absolute hoot, IMHO. I remember the dad being in hospital and getting him notes from a Small Country and the nurse saying something along the lines that they didn't like patients to have access to 'Bryson or Wodehouse' until the stitches were due to come out.

Made in America is a fine read as well; not full of belly laughs, but a damn good potted history of American culture. And that's not *meant* to be an oxymoron...

Walk in the woods is patchy; I'd get it from my local library. The Australian one is fun, but if I were you, the next one I'd go for is Neither Here Nor There - the one about travelling around mainland Europe...

Dub13

quarryman wrote:

is any of those about him travelling across small town america? Read that one and it was great.

That would be A lost Continent,what a great read....a part of the US I never really tought about before.

He has a TV show as well,I caught the last 10min of it a while ago on Discovery (i think) it looked good.

OfflerCrocGod

Yep I have all his travel books and they are all very enjoyable reads but he also has one or two grammar and language books which are not that interesting so I advise most people to stay away from them.

irishgeo

the one of him is auz is brilliant. Its one f the few books i have laughed out loud at and that used to be on the bus home form galway. I have all the travel ones and a short history of nearly everything. Its a shame he never visited ireland as it would make a great book. he doesnt travel now because of the terror situation.

grumpytrousers

irishgeo wrote:

the one of him is auz is brilliant. Its one f the few books i have laughed out loud at and that used to be on the bus home form galway. I have all the travel ones and a short history of nearly everything. Its a shame he never visited ireland as it would make a great book. he doesnt travel now because of the terror situation.

Often thought he should do Ireland, but then seeing as Tony Hawks and Pete McCarthy stole his thunder, there's not much for him to do...

The Lopper

Superb. I love the books. A short History of Nearly Everything is so easy to read, i learned so much science from it. His cynicism is breath taking.

mike65

I've read most of his stuff but not Short History...its in the house though!

I find that he starts really strong in all the books but looses momentum. Difficult to explain. A Walk in the Woods is going to be filmed as a Redford and Newman two hander.

I think his funniest is either The Lost Continent or Neither Here Nor There (which is screamingly funny and contains some beautiful descriptions).

Mike.

Earthhorse

Really? I thought Neither Here Nor There was a bit lacking. He ran out of momentum rather fast in that one I felt.

Always thought The Lost Continent was my favourite because it was the first of his I'd read. After that I'd plump for Notes From A Small Island (though I haven't read everything by Bill), it's really charming.

grumpytrousers

mike65 wrote:

I've read most of his stuff but not Short History...its in the house though!

I find that he starts really strong in all the books but looses momentum. Difficult to explain. A Walk in the Woods is going to be filmed as a Redford and Newman two hander.

I think his funniest is either The Lost Continent or Neither Here Nor There (which is screamingly funny and contains some beautiful descriptions).

Mike.

I'd concur.

Regarding The Lost Continent, it's not *just* the funny descriptions and exchanges he has with people; there's a level of pathos as well there. This is a guy who was brought up in smalltown Iowa where it was all Moms Apple Pie, picket fences, 5'n'dimes etc (essentially Hill Valley from Back to the future!) and as he drives around years and years later, there's a loss of innocence that he captures magnificently; that the only people who are friendly seem to be those largely untouched by progress and that all those erstwhile small towns are still just that - small towns that just happen to have a Walmart...

There's more to him than meets the eye

Dub13

grumpytrousers,

What a great description of The Lost Continent.


PS: Does he still write...?

grumpytrousers

Dub13 wrote:

grumpytrousers,

What a great description of The Lost Continent.


PS: Does he still wright...?

Why thank you

according to the folks at his offical uk website the next tome from him is the *cough* cash in illustrated History of everything...

Despite the words of others on this forum, i'd encourage you to give Made in America and Mother Tongue a lash. The former is a history book, definitely, but written with such brio and genuine love of the subject matter that you can't help but get caught up in the fun...Especially when he starts with all the inventors coming up with mad contraptions, shafting each other etc...

The latter, well, it's Eats Shoots and Leaves, but with his sense of humour...

mike65

write surely?

I wish I had his turn of phase but mainly I wish I has his bank balance.

Mike.

grumpytrousers

re turn of phrase...

"To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. . . . They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill and eat them. Perfect."

and more here

Dub13

Sorry about the grammer...or should I say lack of it,looking after 2 kids (under 3) and surfing the net is surprisingly hard

grumpytrousers wrote:

and more here

Thanks for that link....I love this one.

"The average Southerner has the speech patterns of someone slipping in and out of consciousness. I can change my shoes and socks faster than most people in Mississippi can speak a sentence."

Franky Boy

I've read most of 'The Lost Continent'.

I really enjoyed it!

The Lopper

Notes from a Big Country is pretty hilarious too. I think thats his best formats, a book with loads of articles from the paper.

The chapter in that book on filing taxes is one of the greatest moments in comedy history.

tSubh Dearg

Earthhorse wrote:

Really? I thought Neither Here Nor There was a bit lacking. He ran out of momentum rather fast in that one I felt.

I thought that Neither Here Nor There was hilarious and the fact that he gets so fed up in Europe adds to the amusement. Though the beginning part when he's watching tv in Norway and has to guess what's going on is one of the best parts in the whole book.

The Short History... is also a really good read I learnt so much from that book.

Earthhorse

There are some pretty funny bits in it alright and it doesn't suffer too much from repeated reads. I think it was the overall vibe in it more than anything that put me off.

I prefer the consistency of theme brought about by 'Notes...' and 'The Lost Continent'.

Amazotheamazing

Strange, I've read a few of his books, they always seem to drag from about 2/3rds of the way through, and he rarely has anything positive to say about the Irish, though mentions us negatively a few times. Just my opinion though.

MrJoeSoap

I'd recommend "A Short History..." to anybody with any interest in life and accesible science.

Some of the facts and statistics in it are so mind blowing you find yourself taking regular breaks to comprehend them. Some hilarious anecdotes about mad scientists over the years too.

Might start reading it again soon.

Mordecai

i heard he was doing a book on shakespeare i think....

Dave!

I got my brother 'A Short History...' for Christmas, and I might get my other brother to get me one of his other books, probably 'A Walk...', for Christmas.

I haven't read any of his books but I've not read a bad review

Dades

Never really got into Bryson's stuff.
Tried to read several but never finished.

He writing for me was like a less-funny Douglas Adams. Unlike Adams, the laughs were few and far between. A Short History is an amazing book but the information retention ratio I thought was very low. Just too much of it in one sitting.

Capt'n Midnight

grumpytrousers wrote:

Often thought he should do Ireland, but then seeing as Tony Hawks and Pete McCarthy stole his thunder, there's not much for him to do...

No there is still plenty for him to do. Especially on the use of language and old traditions.

grumpytrousers

DaveMcG wrote:

I got my brother 'A Short History...' for Christmas, and I might get my other brother to get me one of his other books, probably 'A Walk...', for Christmas.

I haven't read any of his books but I've not read a bad review

I thought "a walk in the woods" to be his weakest by far. if you're going to get somebody some Bryson for Christmas, get a different book...

BossArky

I've read three of Bryson's books:

1) "Neither here nor there" - Read this around four years ago, after travelling around Europe the year before. I found his descriptions of the places I'd been very funny and brought back some great memories. A very funny and enjoyable book.

2) "The lost continent" - Read this perhaps a year after the last one, after spending a summer in the USA. Didn't like this book at all, and thought that "Neither here nor there" was a one hit wonder.

3) "A Short history of nearly everything" - Restored my faith in Bryson. A great book that I read on holidays a few weeks ago. Lots of information, explains many of the things you learned at school but have probably forgotten. It did get a bit boring in the section about plant life though. Apart from that I would highly recommend it.

MrJoeSoap

There is a new hardback edition of "A Short History..." available (saw it in Easons, €45) with tonnes of pictures and illustrations. Worth a look.

Saskia

I got "A short history of" last year and never got around to it, I must read it soon. Its supposed to very educational and funny.

John

Saskia wrote:

I got "A short history of" last year and never got around to it, I must read it soon. Its supposed to very educational and funny.

It is. It really is.

Dave!

I just started 'A Walk in the woods' a few minutes ago, and I'm enjoying it alot so far Really funny, I was hysterical for about a minute on the second or third page We'll see how it goes -- I'll read on a good bit after work.

Chinafoot

I had read the Australian one before I went there and thought it was funny.....but I re-read it when I got back. The man is a genuis.

gaf1983

I'm reading "Made in America" at the moment and have to say it's my favourite one yet. If you like trivia upon trivia upon trivia about language, customs, historical anecdotes and geography then this is what you're gonna get. I love trivia. It doesn't have the same cynical sense of humour as his travel books, but I think it is all the better for this. While they were good (the travel books) I found that after a while they seem to follow the same formula - Bill goes to a new place, sometimes an obscure place and gives an interesting story about it, but also has some snide remark to make about the backward habits of the inhabitants. I find this technique tars the locals all with the same brush and does the books a disservice. "Made in America" focusses both on the development of American culture, but also places much emphasis on the linguistic development of American English.

However, I do have one question arising from the book. In a chapter about how different immigrant groups contributed to the the development of the nation, he includes a sectino on their contributions to the language. He states that the expression "So long" derives from a German phrase. I always presumed it evolved from the Irish phrase "Slán." Can anyone clarify the expression's true origins?

Dave!

^
It could also come from the Hebrew, "shalom"

Have read all his stuff. Enjoyed most of it, perhaps not exactly thought provoking but high on entertainment. Loved Made in America, still flick through it every now and again. On the other hand waded through 100 pages on Mother Tongue and threw it in the bin.

Btw for anyone who liked Short History, I'd recommend Simon Singh's 'Big Bang' which is a great mix of physics, astronomy, cosmology, and loads of trivia about the great scientists. Better than Bryson's book - much more stimulating and less of a collection of glib trivia.

John

In a similar vein to Short History I also recommend John Gribbin's Science: A History 1534-2001. It's a fantastic read as pulls all the different branches of science together to show how they all interact and how discoveries in one field can lead a completely new understanding of others.