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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
A great insight into history; as always Bryson fills his narrative with interesting facts related to the rooms & things we find around us everyday in our homes.
I always find Bill's treasure trove of facts and his fascinating, meandering tangential stories both engaging and informative. This book adds a further volume to his homely, uplifting back-catalogue. If Bryson didn't exist someone would need to invent him.
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
A fascinating approach to history through interesting stories. Take it all with a gain of salt - a very white male prospective. There are only items mentioned in the entire history of the home that could be contributed to women?? 1) Queen Victoria establishing dinner as later larger meal and 2) 'women's contributions to gardens'. Cool.
I'd love to read the version of this entirely with inventions and technical advanced by women and nonwhite men. Anyone??
The first half of the book is very interesting, taking through rooms of the house, from here it shifts extremely from the locations of the home to capture seemingly random other stories, histories, not bad just not as expected. It is a pivot.
Trigger warning - there is substantial nightmare fuel, truly fucked up sh*t, horrific living conditions, abuse, harm.
There also seems to be a slightly homophobic pedo undertone from time to time
I'd love to read the version of this entirely with inventions and technical advanced by women and nonwhite men. Anyone??
The first half of the book is very interesting, taking through rooms of the house, from here it shifts extremely from the locations of the home to capture seemingly random other stories, histories, not bad just not as expected. It is a pivot.
Trigger warning - there is substantial nightmare fuel, truly fucked up sh*t, horrific living conditions, abuse, harm.
There also seems to be a slightly homophobic pedo undertone from time to time
Lags a bit at the end or it'd probably be five stars. I don't think that a person would read this book and then look at houses the same way again for at least like a couple months. I dunno, people forget lessons fast. The Erie Canal bit was my favorite part. Bryson is a really funny and clear writer and I wish that like 90% of all history books could be written the way he writes them (with the other 10% being more serious[please don't joke about Charlemagne] but no less clear)
One problem is the tendency for the author to ramble at random places. But then think about it, everything at home do have a rich history behind it, and it covers a lot it in. Which make this book pretty good
One of the best things that happened in the last month was my discovery of Bill Bryson. He writes just the sort of history that I love- connected, obscure factoids about everyday life. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it.
Highly informative and delightfully rambly. Like sitting down for coffee with an old friend, you never know where the conversation will wind up.