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antiauk 's review for:
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bill Bryson
Note: Received free advanced reading copy from publisher's booth at ALA 2010.
An excellent history of fixtures, furniture, and rooms found in the house, how they developed, and to some degree why. This book is as large and rambling as I imagine Bryson's own house is and I often found myself wonderfully lost in his text, not sure why I ended up in one place when I thought I was headed somewhere else. Luckily his writing is so incredibly engaging and interesting that it felt more like exploring than the disconcerting feeling of being lost in a 400 page book.
There is a pretty sharp emphasis on architecture, luckily this often devolves into the personal biography of the architects which is often drama-filled or otherwise very interesting. Bryson manages to pack interesting factoids into nearly every sentence. You will find yourself reading bits and pieces of this out loud to whoever is around. I don't know if this is available on audio yet, but I imagine it would be a great car read.
I also recommend taking a good look at the references Bryson uses. Not only are a strong mix of second and primary resources, but there are some titles that I know I will be looking up to see if I want to read those as well.
The reviewer is the author of the blog A Librarian's Life in Books.
An excellent history of fixtures, furniture, and rooms found in the house, how they developed, and to some degree why. This book is as large and rambling as I imagine Bryson's own house is and I often found myself wonderfully lost in his text, not sure why I ended up in one place when I thought I was headed somewhere else. Luckily his writing is so incredibly engaging and interesting that it felt more like exploring than the disconcerting feeling of being lost in a 400 page book.
There is a pretty sharp emphasis on architecture, luckily this often devolves into the personal biography of the architects which is often drama-filled or otherwise very interesting. Bryson manages to pack interesting factoids into nearly every sentence. You will find yourself reading bits and pieces of this out loud to whoever is around. I don't know if this is available on audio yet, but I imagine it would be a great car read.
I also recommend taking a good look at the references Bryson uses. Not only are a strong mix of second and primary resources, but there are some titles that I know I will be looking up to see if I want to read those as well.
The reviewer is the author of the blog A Librarian's Life in Books.