Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
This was the most wide ranging book of "trivia"--he uses rooms of the house as a starting point to talk about all kinds of English history, biology, and basically anything else you can think of. Might be better taken a chapter at a time with some other reading in between--I got kind of tired of it.
I read the first half of this book while snowed in one weekend. While it tends to ramble and wanders all over the place, it is full of very interesting information about people and places throughout history. I'd definitely recommend reading it in small-ish chunks though... In large doses, it can become tedious.
Good, not great. I love Bill and have read every book he's ever published. This one just tried to pack in a bit too much information. The result was that it lacked his personality, which is the best part of his incredibly diverse body of work. I liked it, and it was incredibly informative but I was ready for it to end.
Interesting how home came to be the place we are spending even more time at due to COVID.
I love Bill Bryson, but I prefer his travel writing. This book had some interesting facts and anecdotes, but was a little too long and rambling for my taste.
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I so wish I could award this book more than five stars...I also wish I had a photographic memory so I could forever recall every fascinating fact and detail "At Home" shares about the history of domestic life, mostly in the UK and the US, but in general terms as well. Bill Bryson is an amazing storyteller and an extremely gifted (and often hilarious) writer. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!
I absolutely adored this book. So many interesting little anecdotes and tangents. The amount of work that must have gone into researching it is absolutely incredible.
If you don't have a broad base of interests I could see certain chapters being boring, but for me I utterly loved learning about everything from the engineer behind Crystal Palace, to the London slums, trade wars and colonisation and illness and agriculture. Absolutely fascinating from start to finish. There's so much in there I'll definitely read again.
If you don't have a broad base of interests I could see certain chapters being boring, but for me I utterly loved learning about everything from the engineer behind Crystal Palace, to the London slums, trade wars and colonisation and illness and agriculture. Absolutely fascinating from start to finish. There's so much in there I'll definitely read again.
Loved this book. Listened to it in the car and wished I had a hard copy to go back to re-read certain parts. Great history on how our current domiciles got to be the way they are. Fascinating history of everyday life.