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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
Rather than A history, it's many short histories of the things that we take for granted as part of home life today -- lighting, plumbing, upholstery, beds, stairs, paint, clothing, telephones, spices, and so much more. Educational and highly entertaining!
This is the worst Bill Bryson book I've ever read. The title and summary is misleading. I expected it to be a quick book filled with interesting tidbits like "why are salt and pepper what we use?" but instead it was a very thorough history of western architecture with a side serving of domestic life. The worst part however was how much Bryson glossed over slavery and native american genocide. I know that it wasn't the feature of this book but when you spend as much time as he did (and it was so. much. time.) talking about the time periods when that occurred, it really needs to be more than a footnote.
Bill Bryson is a wonder. The concept of this book is strange but it’s funny and fascinating. If you only want to try it read The Passage chapter. If you don’t like that, the book isn’t for you. It’s a bit of a geeky collection of facts but they are told in a beautifully accessible way. I wanted someone with me as I read it so I could pass on his stories.
The organization of the book was confusing at times but it contains so much interesting information about the history of the home and the various activities that take place there. I especially loved the origin of some many words we use today like room and board. If you've ever asked yourself why do forks have four tines or why people moved to cities this is the book for you. But be warned it's more a collective of interesting facts than a story.
Bryson takes us on a rambling, meandering tour of his home in the English countryside, room by room, in order to enlighten the reader as to the origins of traditions, technologies, and architectures. As informative as ever, Bryson never lost his tone of enthusiastic delight at sharing his findings with an audience.
This work was endlessly interesting, an unstoppable force of facts. From the beginning, it was clear how all of his background information was relevant to the particular room we were touring. However, as we delved deeper into the house and book, it became slightly convoluted, and we strayed further and further from each room, forcing us back in a meandering, round about path. I almost feel that Bryson had too much information he wanted to share with us, and sometimes tried to smash too much in to one chapter. The organization faltered a bit at the end, but it never failed to keep my attention and interest.
While some critics may dismiss Bryson's writing as predictable and simple, aimed at mass tourist-y audiences, I don't see that as a strike against him. I don't believe that readers uninterested in the informative type of material he writes would become more interested if he had a less straightforward, factually regurgitative (totally a word, right?) manner of writing. If your goal is to expose yourself to as much random information as possible, Bill Bryson is your guy. His voice is pleasant and charmingly sarcastic, and sometimes self-deprecating in a way that makes the reader feel as if she is not being schooled, but perhaps gossiped with.
This work was endlessly interesting, an unstoppable force of facts. From the beginning, it was clear how all of his background information was relevant to the particular room we were touring. However, as we delved deeper into the house and book, it became slightly convoluted, and we strayed further and further from each room, forcing us back in a meandering, round about path. I almost feel that Bryson had too much information he wanted to share with us, and sometimes tried to smash too much in to one chapter. The organization faltered a bit at the end, but it never failed to keep my attention and interest.
While some critics may dismiss Bryson's writing as predictable and simple, aimed at mass tourist-y audiences, I don't see that as a strike against him. I don't believe that readers uninterested in the informative type of material he writes would become more interested if he had a less straightforward, factually regurgitative (totally a word, right?) manner of writing. If your goal is to expose yourself to as much random information as possible, Bill Bryson is your guy. His voice is pleasant and charmingly sarcastic, and sometimes self-deprecating in a way that makes the reader feel as if she is not being schooled, but perhaps gossiped with.
Very entertaining. Bryson sometimes jumps through time, discussing spans of centuries in the same breath, but lots of people do this (everyone knows 1900 and 2000 are totally different eras, but we tend to talk about everything before that as if it were all the same thing or related!). At any rate this is a fun read.
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
So many interesting factoids. If only I could remember them all and bring them out, one by one, at parties throughout the year. Plus I heard Bill Bryson speak about this book and others at a Politics and Prose event in DC, and he was just as great of a guy in person as he is in his books.
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
