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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
This was close to being enjoyable, but there were SO many times I wanted to say a great big, “ok, Boomer.” One example is when he verbally abuses a staff member who explains to him the store he’s in doesn’t have a Marks & Spencer food hall because it’s not a Marks & Spencer. Bill Boomer Bryson seems to be asking for sympathy towards his plight of having to deal with ignorant shop assistants, when he’s the ignorant old grouch who has made an ass of himself. Or like when he “rescues” another shop assistant from a mentally unstable and again verbally aggressive customer. He says it’s a shame the rescuer was “about four foot tall and spherical,” as though he should only bother extending his gallantry to leggy blondes.
I enjoyed the travelogue and facts I picked up along the way, but the author made himself so dislikable, seemed to think he was in the right and should garner my sympathy, and being funny about it. The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have enjoyed it so much more if he didn’t call such obvious attention to being a self-righteous twat. Evidently he just couldn’t hold it in.
I enjoyed the travelogue and facts I picked up along the way, but the author made himself so dislikable, seemed to think he was in the right and should garner my sympathy, and being funny about it. The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have enjoyed it so much more if he didn’t call such obvious attention to being a self-righteous twat. Evidently he just couldn’t hold it in.
It would seem that Bryson is older and grumpier than ever, but I still found this an enjoyable read. It lacked some of the energy and zest for new experiences of his earlier books, but still presented an excellent snapshot of Britain at a specific moment in time.
I enjoyed some of Bryson's other works but here he just spends 350 pages complaining like an old man about everything and everyone.
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
TL;DR: Old man yells at cloud.
I really enjoyed all of Bryson's past travelogues, but the tone of this book is just super grumpy and unfunny. He spends most of his time complaining about how things were better in the good ol' days, and making pointless, negative hyperbolic statements about everything. Every time I tried to make progress in this book it felt like a chore, and was the first Bryson book that I've put down without finishing.
I really enjoyed all of Bryson's past travelogues, but the tone of this book is just super grumpy and unfunny. He spends most of his time complaining about how things were better in the good ol' days, and making pointless, negative hyperbolic statements about everything. Every time I tried to make progress in this book it felt like a chore, and was the first Bryson book that I've put down without finishing.
To be fair, I am listening to this book while I drive instead of reading it. As a Midwesterner, I loved Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent and really appreciated his voice, humor, and classic Midwestern spirit. However, I have been very disappointed by this book. Instead of his humor, I find an account of an old, cranky man who is unnecessarily rude to service workers and who has no idea how lucky he has been. This account seems to be a travelogue of complaints. Chapter five did include a surprisingly positive account of the landscape of Britain, so I am hoping that the tone of the book will improve. However, to this point, I do not recommend this book and wish I had downloaded something less miserable and pessimistic for my long car ride.
I read the British edition, and I'd be interested to see how it differs from the American version. Several parts of it were so densely British that I didn't know what he was talking about or referring to, and ended up having to skim along until he got back to something I recognized. The map in the frontispiece was decidedly unhelpful if you're not already quite familiar with the geography of the UK (where IS the Lake District? What about Yorkshire?), and several of his "amusing" anecdotes about people's stupidity just came across as needlessly caustic, especially when they were directed at Americans. His age also makes the gripes less funny and more "I'm just a cranky old man who still makes a production about being asked 'Do you want fries with that?' at McDonald's." (Seriously, THAT was one of his "oh ho, I'm so witty" complaints. Didn't we all get over that twenty years ago?)
Not his strongest work, and really pretty disappointing overall. I might also be feeling a little bitter due to living abroad and missing America desperately; it smarts to have a native son so heartily endorse a foreign country, to the extent where he throws my beloved country under the bus.
Not his strongest work, and really pretty disappointing overall. I might also be feeling a little bitter due to living abroad and missing America desperately; it smarts to have a native son so heartily endorse a foreign country, to the extent where he throws my beloved country under the bus.
Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors, but I couldn't even get through this book. His schtick has always been "these kids today..." but in this book, it comes across as grumpy and unpleasant and not funny at all.
I'm a longtime fan of Bryson's, and always found him to be his absolute best when capturing the feeling of being the only normal individual in various bizarre interactions and charmingly weird places. I was looking forward to more of it when I found the audiobook on Libby, but sadly it instead felt (as others have noted) like the complaints of a grouchy old man, mostly about younger people in customer service jobs. He's normally brilliant with hyperbole, only using the lightest stroke of the brush to exaggerate a situation enough to bring out what's ludicrous about it, but still feeling real.
Perhaps the audiobook format didn't help; the narrator's voice made his anecdotes sound more judgmental and lecturing, when I had always previously read them as reported with light-hearted neutrality. And there were a fair few funny lines and interesting observations, but I did still feel like I was on a day out with a grandparent whose rudeness I wanted to apologise for, too much to continue. A real shame!
Perhaps the audiobook format didn't help; the narrator's voice made his anecdotes sound more judgmental and lecturing, when I had always previously read them as reported with light-hearted neutrality. And there were a fair few funny lines and interesting observations, but I did still feel like I was on a day out with a grandparent whose rudeness I wanted to apologise for, too much to continue. A real shame!