Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
First book completion of 2023 (sort of) on our Christmas/New Years break.
I think I could only read Bill Bryson books forever and still be fairly content. Chris had so many facts yelled at him over the course of this book.
I think I could only read Bill Bryson books forever and still be fairly content. Chris had so many facts yelled at him over the course of this book.
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I certainly learned a lot reading this book and now have a repertoire of what I would classify as fun facts to share; however, the denseness of content made reading this difficult.
Following Bryson around the rectory he lived in for a time, he goes room to room analyzing the uses and history of each. While some topics made sense to me (ie the nursery depicts Victorian childhood and the kitchen discusses food), sometimes there were tangents so far off the room in the house that I felt like I was reading a hodgepodge of facts. And they are interesting facts! Centrally and thematically though, I was lost and struggled to follow his train of thought.
The rooms weren’t quite the focus of any of the chapters, which I found disappointing. I thought there would be more obscure information about the home and rooms themselves. Also, the paths that Bryson went through included uncomfortable topics and depictions, which I was not ready for necessarily.
His writing style is easy to digest though. He gives off the tone of a quirky historian, where his section endings felt like him giving a shrug and essentially saying, “it is what it is.”
Following Bryson around the rectory he lived in for a time, he goes room to room analyzing the uses and history of each. While some topics made sense to me (ie the nursery depicts Victorian childhood and the kitchen discusses food), sometimes there were tangents so far off the room in the house that I felt like I was reading a hodgepodge of facts. And they are interesting facts! Centrally and thematically though, I was lost and struggled to follow his train of thought.
The rooms weren’t quite the focus of any of the chapters, which I found disappointing. I thought there would be more obscure information about the home and rooms themselves. Also, the paths that Bryson went through included uncomfortable topics and depictions, which I was not ready for necessarily.
His writing style is easy to digest though. He gives off the tone of a quirky historian, where his section endings felt like him giving a shrug and essentially saying, “it is what it is.”
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Learning history told by a curious man who lived in a Victorian parsonage for a time and asked around about it and other interesting domeciles during his time in England.
I love the way this man writes.
I love the way this man writes.
informative
slow-paced
LDidn't expect it to be quite so much about (the building of) stately homes & agree with some of the other reviews that say the links of the history shared in some of the rooms felt a bit tenuous. Listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed quite a few chapters/sections that seemed to fly by but did find myself zoning out for some of the more detailed lengthy parts!
I always look forward for a few chuckles reading a Bryson book, however this is not that book. After the first few chapters, I realize this is a quite serious read but I'm not all that disappointed, he is after all a very good writer. Take a house, his home and what goes into that home and that is the basis of the book. From top to bottom he takes us through the basics of the items we take f marvelous inventors that made it all possible. We don't stay land locked at all as nothing began or was inspired by being just in the one house so we are set to go all over the globe and what a trip it is. I was doing just fine, very enjoyable and maybe slightly too comfortable and then...Mr. Bryson dared to go there...go figure...the question of human waste...I suddenly am slung back in time to reading more about sewers and sewer systems when I read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo...I didn't ever want to revisit that topic but here we are. I muddle on and frankly I don't want to know how it works or where it goes, I just know when I turn on a faucet or flush a toilet the business is taken care of. Well, it is part of the house so yep he went there. All kidding aside it's a wonderful work full of the history of things we take for granted and the people that we owe a big thanks for their visions and making our lives a little safer and quite a bit easier so we can do what we most enjoy....like reading.
This deceivingly simple book turned out to be one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. By breaking down a modern house into its separate rooms, Bill Bryson takes you on a thousand year tour of how people have lived throughout the ages. You learn about countless industries and lifestyle habits - how they started and how they eventually influenced the way in which we all live in our homes. I highly recommend this for anyone yearning for history painted with a broad brush. Great stuff.