Posts tagged Bill Bryson

AUDIOBOOK read by Bill Bryson

I have always enjoyed reading Bill Bryson’s books.  I think the first one I read was In a Sunburned Country about his travels around Australia.  I took a special interest in that book as I read the majority of it on a flight to Sydney in 2001 (you can get a lot of reading done on a 14 hour flight).  If you haven’t read that or any of his other travel related books (A Walk in the Woods, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Notes from a Small Island, …), I highly recommend them.  Filled with often hilarious observations and stories, they are quick reads.  I caution reading them in public places as I found myself laughing out loud on more than a few occasions.  

In the last few years, Bryson has moved away from the travel type writing and on to more historical/scientific topics.  I listened to his A Short History of Nearly Everything last year and thought it to be a bit dry, but interesting.  I would classify At Home as much the same.  There are a lot of interesting tidbits in this history of housing and the things within, but the narrative is a bit dry.  There are still some moments of the Bryson wit, but he treats these topics more seriously than his previous writing and I think it suffers for it.  The audiobook is read by the author, which may have been a mistake.  It never really felt like Bryson was into the text and I think it affected my opinion of the book.  If you’re a history buff, then this book may be a good pickup for you but everyone else could probably skip it.  But do yourself a favor and pick up Bryson’s travel books.