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Notes from a Small Island May 2, 2006
Bill Bryson is one of my new favorite authors. His spectacular A Short History of Nearly Everything was really enough to cement that position, but I’ve recently discovered his set of travel diaries. Notes from a Small Island discusses the tour of the United Kingdom he takes as he and his family prepare to move away. Bryson strikes me as a infinitely interesting character, the kind of guy who just likes to poke around and explore places, taking in the views, the food, the drink, and the people so that he can later recount them for your pleasure. He has the uncanny ability to make every point of so-called interest along a tour much more fascinating than it has any right to be.
His sense of humor is also superlative, a quality he repeatedly demonstrates as he constantly interjects his travel stories with material that most stand-up comedians would probably like to crib. I’ve recently added all of his other books to my Amazon.com wish list and plan to make my way through all of them. I’m particularly interested to see what he has to say about returning to America after living abroad for so long.
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Tags: Bill Bryson, Book Review, Nonfiction
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Posted by Bethany on May 5, 2006 12:00 AM:
Jamie, congratulations on discovering one of the funniest authors I've ever read! As my mom once said, "Bryson's books are kind of embarrassing to read in public, because you inevitably start laughing so hard that people around you are going to think you're crazy." If you liked the books you've read so far, I guarantee you'll like the rest of them as well. Even his books about the English language are funny and entertaining (the first book of his I read was Mother Tongue). I actually wrote him a letter once and got a personal response, which I treasure.
Enjoy reading all those books!
Posted by Shawn on June 4, 2006 3:16 PM:
I started reading this book and enjoyed it however I started getting bored with it after hearing yet another quaint English village being described. I still have not finished it.
I did start reading another book by him about small town America called "The Lost Continent" and I could not put it down! His description of Kmarts and southern accents were dead on.