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Bill Bryson

KristoCat

KristoCat

New Member
For anyone who normally likes fiction but might want to try out nonfiction, I recommend Bill Bryson. I read In a Sunburned Country and thought it was just wonderful. His work will also appeal to people who like to read about travel too.

In a Sunburned Country is all about his travels in Australia and what he learned about the continent. It's really an extraordinary place and he gives the reader all sorts of interesting facts and mysteries to ponder, and tells us about his own adventures exploring the cities and the outback.

Great book!
 
oops... I wasn't aware that Bryson wrote A Short History of Nearly Everything... so I foolishly thought no one had posted about him here yet... silly me :p
 
He's definitely mentioned in other threads too. I remember posting about Notes from a Small Island, his book about traveling the perimeter of England. While I think he's a decent writer, it seems like sometimes he doesn't have much to say. Like, I think he's planned out this book and this trip and has a book contract and sets off, and then he winds up not having much really interesting material. The book about England (where he lived for a long time) had a squirrelly tone of 'look at all these funny little oddballs with their bicycles and mugs of tea."

I read some excerpts from Sunburned Country and liked it better. I think he found more rich material for that one. To me he falls into the category of "us chaps in hiking boots and sturdy shorts are NORMAL. Let's go look at these strange folks for a bit." School of Michael Palin. Bruce Chatwin, I think, does a better version of a similar thing.

Have you read The Songlines by Chatwin. Really good book.
 
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Bryson except his book about England. My favorite is The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got to be That Way. My second favorite is the book about Australia, and my third favorite is about the Appalachian Trail.
 
cool bookwormthensomenumbers. I totally agree with you. I mean, I don't really know much about this bryson guy, but I really like reading your posts. this is my third favorite so far, after the magazine thread, and then the ONE question thread. if I read your posts some more, I'm sure I'll like all of them.

I eagerly await you, bookwormsomething.
 
I loved this book - I found the section on Canberra nightlife particularly amusing. I also enjoyed A Walk in the Woods (the Appalachian trail one) and have read excerpts from A Short History of Nearly Everything, but alas have not found a copy to read cover to cover. His subtle humour is very amusing to me. I also enjoyed his book on the English language that was mentioned earlier - that makes for great dinner party conversation too!

Kristo - if you liked Bill Bryson, try Tony Hawks. It's not quite as 'traveloguish' but it's hilarious. His Round Ireland With a Fridge was the first one I read and it's just brilliant. It's the true story of how he made a drunken bet one night that he could hitchhike around Ireland with a small barfridge within 30 days... and then did it.
 
ooo, Kook, awesome! I was thinking about reading his other books but I love readalikes. It's one of my specialties and I'm always looking for more new connections. Tony Hawks will go down on my TBR list right now! :D
 
I'm resurrecting this thread because I read "Down Under" (or "In a Sunburnt Country") yesterday.

I had previously read "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "Notes from a small island", both of which I was very impressed with.

"Down Under" failed to please me as much as the others. I think this was mostly due to the fact that a lot of the stuff he talks about (Australian history, flora/fauna, etc.) is already well-known to me, being a native. Maybe I enjoyed his other books so much because he has a style that serves to introduce a reader to an unknown subject (be it England or the history of the universe) in a humorous and relaxed way. Would anyone else agree with this?

PS I have started "A Walk in the Woods" today and am enjoying it immensely already!
 
I have read most of his books and loved them all. Loved ' Down Under', the part where the long-suffering family were giving him a guided tour and he went noisily and droolingly to sleep was one of the funniest things I've ever read. How he manages to make a walk through a seemingly boring wood into a whole hilarious story is very clever. He's an amazing fount of fascinating trivia and has just the right amount of critical humour.
 
A Walk in the Woods is very funny. I started it last night, and I'm cruising through it, with retention, because the writing style and humour are so enjoyable. The page where he describes their first breakfast put me in tears. It took five painful minutes of laughing to get through that page.
 
Bookworm88 said:
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Bryson except his book about England. My favorite is The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got to be That Way. My second favorite is the book about Australia, and my third favorite is about the Appalachian Trail.
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I love him too. I'm interested though: I'm from the UK and thought his book abto england was pretty accurate in it's observation - what didn't you like? Just intrigued:)

MM
 
He's one of my favorite authors (^_^)

My favorite book of Bryson's is A Walk in the Woods. I think I've read it about 15 times... Right now my husband and I are reading "Neither Here Nor There" outloud. I love Bryson's voice and writing style. Actually, I love his voice too. Try listening to Sunburned Country or Walk in the Woods. It's just great! Just make sure that the book is read by Bryson.
 
Interesting point. I think most books benefit from knowing the authors voice, but that's a separate issue for another time perhaps.

Bill Bryson is cracking and who could argue? 'Down Under' ('In a Sunburnt Country') is at points testing in keeping attention, but at other times some of the best non-fiction I've ever read.

I've also just read 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', about his childhood in Iowa, and found it enjoyable, but lacking many of the laugh out loud moments Down Under gave me. It'd be a great book by a novice author, but for Bryson (or what I expect of him), I found it merely good.

I also own 'A Short History of....' and haven't yet managed to get through it all. It's ambitious and Bryson is the man I'd choose to pull it off, but I just wonder if there's a little too much going on even for Bryson to cohesively and wittily deliver.

Finally, I think he's one of those authors whose books I try to ration, not wanting to devour the lot too quickly...if that makes sense.
 
Shakespeare, Bill Bryson

There's not a lot we know about one of the greatest writers of all time. So little, in fact, that people for the last 200 years have been speculating that maybe he didn't even write the works he's credited with.

Bryson dismisses all such claims in one of the funniest chapters of the book - noting that three of the leading "anti-Stratfordians" are named Looney, Silliman, and Battey - and instead focuses on presenting what we do know about Shakespeare, what we can reasonably assume about him, and how we know it. And as always with Bryson, it's all presented in a very light, entertaining but informative tone.

There's a lot of interesting information in here, both about Shakespeare the person (the little we know of him), his career and how his works survived, and the society that formed him. What I would have liked to hear more about is the society that he formed; his literature, and the influence it had on the coming 400 years. That's not the book Bryson set out to write, and I guess I'll have to keep looking for one of those. For now, Shakespeare is definitely recommended for those who want to know who ol' Billy Stratford was. :star4:
 
beer good said:
Shakespeare, Bill Bryson

There's not a lot we know about one of the greatest writers of all time. So little, in fact, that people for the last 200 years have been speculating that maybe he didn't even write the works he's credited with.

Bryson dismisses all such claims in one of the funniest chapters of the book - noting that three of the leading "anti-Stratfordians" are named Looney, Silliman, and Battey - and instead focuses on presenting what we do know about Shakespeare, what we can reasonably assume about him, and how we know it. And as always with Bryson, it's all presented in a very light, entertaining but informative tone.

There's a lot of interesting information in here, both about Shakespeare the person (the little we know of him), his career and how his works survived, and the society that formed him. What I would have liked to hear more about is the society that he formed; his literature, and the influence it had on the coming 400 years. That's not the book Bryson set out to write, and I guess I'll have to keep looking for one of those. For now, Shakespeare is definitely recommended for those who want to know who ol' Billy Stratford was. :star4:
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I loved Shakespeare. I thought Bryson did a good job laying the groundwork for the time period and I thought his arguments that Shakespeare wrote his own works were very convincing. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the time period and/or Shakespeare's life.
 
Snork Maiden said:
Too much information...
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Just a little
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Haha
 
I thought A Walk in the Woods was hilarious and very well-written. However, I stopped reading A Brief History of Nearly Everything because I was so bored with it.
 
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