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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Note to self: Next time Bill Bryson comes to tea, do not use the "Keep Calm and Carry On" teacups.
I’ve been listening to this audiobook in the car for just over a month. It was one of my birthday presents and what a brilliant gift it was. This book is absolutely hilarious, making me smile and laugh out loud on more than one occasion as I’ve been driving around listening to it.As well as being highly amusing, it’s also really interesting and makes me want to go on a long trip around the UK, to visit all the places Bill Bryson visited. The narrator was perfect, truly bringing Bill Bryson’s observations to life. I loved hearing his take on all things British, good and bad, and look forward to listening to another audiobook by him very soon.
I remember reading Notes From a Small Island and loved it so I was really looking forward to the Road to Little Dribbling.
I was not impressed.
Actually, I was quite bored by it. There was an occasional comment that made me smile but in the main, I was either bored or irritated.
I was not impressed.
Actually, I was quite bored by it. There was an occasional comment that made me smile but in the main, I was either bored or irritated.
I loved [b: Notes From a Small Island|28|Notes from a Small Island|Bill Bryson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411111661s/28.jpg|940892], and I desperately wanted to love this as well. There are flashes of brilliance, and Bryson is still an excellent travel writer when he's got something to talk about, but so much of this book comes across as a curmudgeonly old man railing at change and bewildered by the modern world. Partly, you'd expect something like this from the former president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England but partly it comes across as just mean-spirited (for example, an anecdote about how Bryson helped a young worker in a bookshop deal with a mentally ill patient is spoiled by her dismissal as "four foot nothing and practically spherical").
Supposedly, Bryson is roughly following his imaginary "Bryson Line" (the furthest you could travel in a straight line across Great Britain without crossing salt water), but he meanders so much that the line is pretty much worthless. He also spends most of his time in the south of England; Wales and Scotland are dismissed with a single chapter each and the north of England gets a handful towards the end of the book.
There are still the amusing asides and historical anecdotes for which much of Bryson's writing is famed, but this is most definitely not vintage Bryson. I wonder if this is explained when he says in the prologue that his publisher has been trying to get him to write a sequel to Notes From a Small Island for years. Is this a book that Bryson just didn't really want that much to write, but felt pressured into it? I wouldn't bother with this, stick with Notes From a Small Island or [b: Down Under|12258599|Dragon Down Under (Dragon Down Under, #1)|Angela Castle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328533650s/12258599.jpg|17233414] if you want to read good travel writing.
Supposedly, Bryson is roughly following his imaginary "Bryson Line" (the furthest you could travel in a straight line across Great Britain without crossing salt water), but he meanders so much that the line is pretty much worthless. He also spends most of his time in the south of England; Wales and Scotland are dismissed with a single chapter each and the north of England gets a handful towards the end of the book.
There are still the amusing asides and historical anecdotes for which much of Bryson's writing is famed, but this is most definitely not vintage Bryson. I wonder if this is explained when he says in the prologue that his publisher has been trying to get him to write a sequel to Notes From a Small Island for years. Is this a book that Bryson just didn't really want that much to write, but felt pressured into it? I wouldn't bother with this, stick with Notes From a Small Island or [b: Down Under|12258599|Dragon Down Under (Dragon Down Under, #1)|Angela Castle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328533650s/12258599.jpg|17233414] if you want to read good travel writing.
Bill Bryson is really grumpy in this book. I'm a big Bryson fan. I think I've read everything he's written. He's never veered far from curmudgeonly but he's downright peevish in this book. He's telling people to fuck off repeatedly. Far warning if that kind of thing bothers you.
To start this journey he drew a line on a map connecting the farthest points he could find on a map of the United Kingdom.
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He started his trip from Bognor Regis in the south and meandered his way north in the general direction of this line. This made me spend some quality time with Google maps. I thought I had in my head a general idea of where he was going. Then suddenly he was in Wales. I didn't know which one of us was not understanding geography. I did find that I didn't have a very good grasp on English geography - although I was spot on about Wales. I would have sworn the Lake District was northeast of London along with Stratford-upon- Avon and the Cotswolds. Turns out none of these things are true.
He alternates taking lovely walks with complaining about British customer service and the tendency of British people to litter. He does have a strange nostalgia for museums full of taxidermy which I personally hate. He can't stand shops selling pieces of wood with pithy sayings on them. He seems to get a bit tipsy more than is probably healthy or wise.
There was more in this book about his life outside of writing than there has been in other books. He talks about doing speeches to politicians and filming TV shows.
I was disappointed that he didn't narrate the audiobook. That's one of the joys of listening to his books on audio. The narrator did a good job but it took me several hours to get over the fact that he wasn't Bill Bryson and to stop hearing a phantom version of Bill Bryson's voice in my head reading along with the narrator.
Bottom line - Listen to this one if you are a fan but don't let this be a first or third Bryson book.
This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
This was mostly enjoyable. Bryson still writes laugh out loud funny; his sense of humor is very much my sense of humor. There were moments of sheer joy while reading this.
Twenty years on, though, and the things he's curmudgeonly about aren't so funny anymore. He no longer seems like a lovable misanthrope who has an occasional rant, but like a stodgy old guy who is cranky about the world moving on. And to be fair, he has some fair points about things like littering, and bad service in restaurants and bars in Britain. But he's also just sometimes annoying. I don't remember finding him annoying twenty years ago.
That said, you absolutely have to read this if you love Bryson, and even more so if you love Notes. There are moments where wonderful old Bill shines through, and you don't want to miss that.
Twenty years on, though, and the things he's curmudgeonly about aren't so funny anymore. He no longer seems like a lovable misanthrope who has an occasional rant, but like a stodgy old guy who is cranky about the world moving on. And to be fair, he has some fair points about things like littering, and bad service in restaurants and bars in Britain. But he's also just sometimes annoying. I don't remember finding him annoying twenty years ago.
That said, you absolutely have to read this if you love Bryson, and even more so if you love Notes. There are moments where wonderful old Bill shines through, and you don't want to miss that.
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced