Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
Normally I love Bill Bryson's work; he cracks me up and his travels make me want to pack a bag and get on a plane. Normally I can't stop reading a book halfway through; even if I'm not enjoying it I plug through to the end. But it was somewhere in the middle of the Fuse Box chapter that I realized I was not enjoying "At Home" and that I didn't have to suffer all the way through it.
Bryson seems to love doing research and when his odd facts and histories are interspersed throughout a travel memoir, they add an interesting element to the places he's journeying to. When the entire book is one quirky fact after another, for 500 pages about fuse boxes and pantries no less, it starts to drag. Without the journey, there isn't any momentum getting the reader through. I felt like I was inching around his house, getting to know every dust mote and wall joist.
Sadly, At Home will join the short list of books I've never finished - and any dissatisfaction I feel at abandoning it unread is outweighed by the dissatisfaction I was feeling as I plodded through the history of the light bulb.
Bryson seems to love doing research and when his odd facts and histories are interspersed throughout a travel memoir, they add an interesting element to the places he's journeying to. When the entire book is one quirky fact after another, for 500 pages about fuse boxes and pantries no less, it starts to drag. Without the journey, there isn't any momentum getting the reader through. I felt like I was inching around his house, getting to know every dust mote and wall joist.
Sadly, At Home will join the short list of books I've never finished - and any dissatisfaction I feel at abandoning it unread is outweighed by the dissatisfaction I was feeling as I plodded through the history of the light bulb.
Other than the fact that the topics he discusses in his chapters rarely, or distantly, relate to the room it's based on, I found this to be a pretty good read. Gives a nice general overview of resent history, and occasionally a little father back.
I am really not sure why he tried to relate his random bits of trivia to a home. The chapter topics are tangentially related, if that, to the respective room that was covered. For example, the chapter on the Study was all about the history of mice and rats since he catches a lot of mice in his Study. It almost seemed like he had a bunch of topics he had researched and decided to tie them together (not very well) and put a book together. I really enjoyed some of his other books, but not this one-no real point to it.
Lots of anecdotal bits and pieces that are fascinating, but no consistent idea aside from moving from room to room. The history is a bit all over the place, and Bryson picks and chooses who he wants to cast as a villain and who, a hero.
An awesome deep dive into private life told through the different rooms of the home. I love Bill Bryson’s books because they are chock full of fun facts, mini deep dives, and passion for history.
I find Bill Bryson's random factoid style of writing history to be interesting and fairly entertaining, but he is by no means a historian and his Anglo/Western centric point of view was pretty obnoxious. It wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't so grandiose in his statements, everything is the best or first or biggest or most important, but it's all been made or discovered by white English/American dudes. I read about 3/4 of it and gave up when he called the Colonial American continent "empty." A lack of white people is not emptiness.
I loved this SO much. It was informative, detailed, and a touch humorous. I listened to the audio read by Bill Bryson himself, and it was a delightful experience. I would love to listen/read again someday.
i liked this book, especially the second half i found very enjoyable and learned a lot.
did not appreciate how the author portrayed the irish potato famine, he explained that the irish were actually producing enough other food to survive but failed to mention the fact that british landlords were refusing to sell to irish people and instead exporting overseas, when omitting this fact it sounded as though he was implying that irish people were not capable of sharing food with each other. i might just be prejudiced but i think this is a very important part of the famine and weird to not mention.
particularly found the chapters on the bedroom, bathroom, scullery and nursery to be very interesting.
did not appreciate how the author portrayed the irish potato famine, he explained that the irish were actually producing enough other food to survive but failed to mention the fact that british landlords were refusing to sell to irish people and instead exporting overseas, when omitting this fact it sounded as though he was implying that irish people were not capable of sharing food with each other. i might just be prejudiced but i think this is a very important part of the famine and weird to not mention.
particularly found the chapters on the bedroom, bathroom, scullery and nursery to be very interesting.
This book as an audiobook format was a constant companion for my morning walks throughout the COVID time. One can’t help but marvel at the immense research that has been put into this book to make it so intriguing as well as engaging. So many things around us which are just hiding in plain sight but have the most amazing back stories. I’m so glad I found this book.
Lots of interesting stuff....not always well connected and often felt irrelevant.
The author's manner of speaking drove me batty. Not my favorite audio.
The author's manner of speaking drove me batty. Not my favorite audio.