#ThrowbackThursday. Bill Bryson

 

Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

For my #ThrowbackThursday posts, I usually go back in chronological order. Often, I mention just the one book that comes next. But this week, I have to make an exception. Bill Bryson is one of my favourite authors and I was really sad when he announced that he wouldn't be writing anymore. A terrible loss. Bill Bryson did not just entertain us with his travel books and his stories about his birth and his chosen country, he also taught us about the English language and about science, such a universal author. I learned more about science from his books than I ever did in school.

Here is a list of all the books I have read:

"At Home" - 2010
"A Walk in the Woods" - 1998
"Bill Bryson's African Diary. A Short Trip for a Worthy Cause" - 2000
"The Body. A Guide for Occupants" - 2019
"Down Under/In a Sunburned Country" - 2002
"Icons of England" - 2008
"The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - 2006     
"Made in America: an Informal History of the English Language in the United States" - 1994
"Mother Tongue" - 1990
"Neither Here Nor There. Travels in Europe" - 1991
"Notes from a Big Country" (US: I'm a Stranger Here Myself) - 1999
"Notes from a Small Island" - 1995
"The Lost Continent" - 1989
"One Summer: America, 1927" - 2013
"The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island" - 2015
"Shakespeare: The World as a Stage" - 2007
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" - 2003
"Troublesome Words" - 1997

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here. The books are ordered by genre there.

#ThrowbackThursday. Notes from a Small Island

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island" - 1995

This was my first experience with Bill Bryson. I fell in love with his humour and writing style right away. This is still my favourite book by him though I love them all and would be overwhelmed if he revoked his decision to stop writing.

Read more on my original post here.

Find a link to my all my Bill Bryson reviews here.

We discussed this in our British book club in January 1999.

Bryson, Bill "The Body. A Guide for Occupants"

Bryson, Bill "The Body. A Guide for Occupants" - 2019

Bill Bryson should have been my biology teacher. Or any science teacher. I might have learned something in that direction in school. Alas, he would have been too young when I visited school and also, he's not a teacher. Or is he?

I've already learned a lot about science in his book "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and this is another example about how you can make a dull subject more interesting for others. Nobody has to convince me to read any of his travel books (see the list in "Bill Bryson - Funniest author ever") or any book by him at all but I was a tad apprehensive about this one since biology was never my "thing".

Bill Bryson said: "We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it …"

And he is so right. Whilst I knew the basics, there is so much more to learn and to know and with this book, I have learned a lot more than in many years at school. And it was not boring, not a minute of it.

One thing I have to say, whilst I always knew how much could go wrong in your body and that it's more astonishing how little actually does go wrong, this book is more reassuring than troubling. We all die at one point, some sooner, some later. And while it is terrifying to lose a loved one, we do live a lot longer than any people in history did which also causes us to die of illnesses our ancestors wouldn't get because they'd been dead for decades.

I did miss the author's usual humour, but you can't have it all, I guess.

Still, please, carry on writing these kind of informative books as well as your funny ones, Bill Bryson. No matter what subject you choose for your next book, I will definitely read it.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"In his brilliant, bestselling A Short History of Neary Everything, Bill Bryson set off to explore the universe and the science of everything in it. In The Body, he turns his gaze inwards, to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us. As he guides us around the human body to discover how it functions, what can go wrong and its remarkable ability to heal itself, what emerges is that we are infinitely more complex, wondrous and mysterious than any of us might have suspected.

From our genes to our linguistic skills, our big brains to our dextrous fingertips, we are an astonishing story of success. And the history of how we have tried to master our biology and stave off disease is full of forgotten heroes, astounding anecdotes and extraordinary facts. (Your body make a million red blood cells since you started reading this.)

Endlessly fascinating, and as compulsively readable as it is comprehensive, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. A must-read owner's manual for everybody, this is Bryson at this best."

Aitken, Ben "Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island"

Aitken, Ben "Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island" - 2015

If you know me even a little, you know how much I love Bill Bryson's book. And therefore, I just had to read Ben Aitken's homage. He travelled the same route as Bill Bryson did in 1995 (as described in his book "Notes from a Small Island"), only about twenty years later. Even though Bill Bryson did a second tour ("The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island") through the UK and a lot has changed in the meantime, it was a pleasure to accompany this author in his footsteps through the UK.

Sometimes he was a tad too sceptical about what Bill Bryson had done or said but it was still lovely to reminisce with the author. Some of his criticism is probably a generation question, I bet he sees it different in twenty years.

Not as funny as Bill Bryson but still quite worth reading.

From the back cover:

"'Long story short, I've decided to retrace your steps. Why? Because I'm bored. Take it from me, there's only so many tacos a guy can serve before he wants to put a pint of salsa down his windpipe.'

An irreverent homage to the '95 travel classic Notes from a Small Island, wherein Ben Aitken retraces Bill Bryson’s journey as precisely as possible - same hotels, same plates of food, same amount of time in the bath - before finishing outside his house on Christmas Eve.

Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to 6ft then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He followed Bill Bryson around the UK for Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015).

'It would be wrong to view this book as just a highly accomplished homage to a personal hero. Aitken's politics, as much as his humour, are firmly in the spotlight, and Dear Bill Bryson achieves more than its title (possibly even its author) intended.' Manchester Review"

I love all of Bill Bryson’s books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Kaminer, Wladimir "Russian Disco"

Kaminer, Wladimir "Russian Disco" (German: Russendisko) - 2000

I read another book by Wladimir Kaminer recently (Ausgerechnet Deutschland. Geschichten unserer neuen Nachbarn) [Germany of all. Stories of our new neighbours]) but since that hasn't been translated, I couldn't review it here.

However, it reminded me that I read another book by this wonderful author that I haven't reviewed, yet. Well, here we go.

The author is one of the many Russian-Germans that came to Germany shortly after the wall came down. This is a book about all of his compatriots who - like him - ended up in Berlin. His short stories tell us how he got to know his new country by exploring Berlin and finding his way into the discos that were often led by Russians.

It's a funny way of trying to understand our new fellow citizens. While his stories often exceed our imagination - he is a master of sarcasm - they all make us laugh.

I have read this book again in 2021, at least a decade after I read it first. It was still as hilarious. His stories about his beginnings in Germany, life of many Russians in Germany and particularly in Berlin, are both delightful and superb. I love the author's quirky sense of humour and how he takes the micky both out of his former and new compatriots. Nobody has such a power of observation as he does. One could call him the "German" Bill Bryson.

From the back cover:

"Born in Moscow, Wladimir Kaminer emigrated to Berlin in the early '90s when he was 22. Russian Disco is a series of short and comic autobiographical vignettes about life among the émigrés in the explosive and extraordinary multi-cultural atmosphere of '90s Berlin. It's an exotic, vodka-fuelled millennial Goodbye to Berlin. The stories show a wonderful, innocent, deadpan economy of style reminiscent of the great humorists. [Several of his European editors make a comparison with current bestseller David Sedaris.*] Kaminer manages to say a great deal without seeming to say much at all. He speaks about the offbeat personal events of his own life but captures something universal about our disjointed times."

* I'm not really a fan of David Sedaris, as you can see in my review about "Me Talk Pretty One Day", so I don't see a connection.

Bryson, Bill "Notes form a Big Country"

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Big Country" (US: I'm a Stranger Here Myself) - 1999 

After many years in Great Britain, Bill Bryson returns to his home country with his family for a while. He is one of my favourite authors.

If you need to laugh out loud, really laugh, pick up a Bill Bryson book and get carried away. I always said my favourite of his books was "Notes from a Small Island" (added by "The Road to Little Dribbling" later on) but I am not so sure after this one. Maybe because I also have left my home country and lived abroad for about a quarter of a century and don't always know my own country that well myself any more, maybe because this book seems to be even more personal than many of the other Bryson books ... in any case, I loved it.

Please, write more books, Bill!

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs. Bryson, little Jimmy et al. and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth.

Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood: the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts; and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, 'Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say.'

Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life."

I have a blogpost called "Bill Bryson - Funniest Author ever" where I link to all my Bryson reviews.

Bryson, Bill "Bill Bryson's African Diary"

Bryson, Bill "Bill Bryson's African Diary. A Short Trip for a Worthy Cause" - 2002

I had a hard time obtaining this book. I usually try to find my foreign literature in local bookshops that carry them. And there are lots of Bill Bryson books to be had. However, not the "African Diary". So I ordered it at that online book shop everyone orders all their stuff from, you know, the one named after a South American river. ;) Even they couldn't deliver, After a year it was still on back order.

But I was lucky and found it in the end. Of course, a hardback that is smaller than a paperback but costs at least as much as a hardback. Maybe that's what holds people back. However, about the money: ALL the money goes to CARE International, so you make a donation AND get a book for FREE.

And it was totally worth it. Even describing the poorest people, refugees, slum dwellers, Bill Bryson finds such a gentle way of describing it, even makes you laugh from time to time. Not that this is the aim of the book, he just can't help himself.

I still think it is sad that the book is so short but he covers everything and it might get people to read him or at least read about the subject who are not much into reading. If that is the idea and it works, I'm totally behind one of my favourite authors.

In any case, even though it is so short, it's a MUST read for any Bryson fan.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Bill Bryson goes to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world.

Kenya, generally regarded as the cradle of mankind, is a land of contrasts, with famous game reserves, stunning landscapes, and a vibrant cultural tradition. It also provides plenty to worry a traveller like Bill Bryson, fixated as he is on the dangers posed by snakes, insects and large predators. But on a more sober note, it is a country that shares many serious human and environmental problems with the rest of Africa: refugees, AIDS, drought and grinding poverty.

Travelling around the country, Bryson casts his inimitable eye on a continent new to him, and the resultant diary, though short in length, contains the trademark Bryson stamp of wry observation and curious insight.

All the author's royalties from Bill Bryson's African Diary, as well as all profits, will go to CARE International."

Bryson, Bill "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid"

Bryson, Bill "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - 2006

I don't know what I love most about Bill Bryson, his humour certainly is a big contender for number one. But it's not just that, he is a brilliant writer, I think even if he would write a cook book or a technical instruction, it would sound great.

Anyway, in this book we go back to his roots, meet his family, meet little William - or Billy - Bryson, his friends, his foes, his adventures as a young boy, his adventures as an older boy.

So we can visit school with little Billy, go to the local fair with him and find out why he wants to become thirteen so desperately, learn why he finally leaves for pastures new, all in all, get to know the author a little better with every page. And if, like me, you grew up at about the same time, he guides you back into all those memories form childhood that you almost forgot.

Bill Bryson puts a lot of thought into questions that I've been pondering about for ages. For instance, "How could we be sure that we all saw the same colours? Maybe what I see as green you see as blue. Who could actually say? And when scientists say that dogs and cats are colour-blind (or not - I could never remember which it was), how do they know? What dog is going to tell them?"

I always learn something from the author, even if it is the English word for a common root vegetable: Rutabaga. ;)

I can't mention it often enough, Bill Bryson is one of the funniest authors that ever lived and it will be hard to find his equal. If you like to read other books by him, you can find all those that I read so far on this page.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, ‘I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.’ In this deeply funny and personal memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, in the curious world of 1950s Middle America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about one boy’s growing up. But in Bryson’s hands, it becomes everyone’s story, one that will speak volumes - especially to anyone who has ever been young."

Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods"

Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" - 1998

As one of the biggest Bill Bryson fans, I guess everyone is surprised that I never read "A Walk in the Woods" before. But I have not. I think he wrote so many books about the States that somehow this one was buried under that huge pile. And I'm not the biggest nature fan myself.

However, I ran out of good funny books and had to attempt this one. Especially since a good friend who loves the same kind of books as I do also just read and highly recommended it.

I was not disappointed. Same as in all his other travel books, Bill Bryson writes one of the funniest accounts of a mega-hike. Initially, he intends to walk the whole Appalachian trail but then he does take breaks. Still, he walks about 870 miles which amounts to only about a third of the whole trail. Well, I think he did a tremendous job. I know, I couldn't have done even a third of that, so kudos Mr. Bryson.

The story itself is hilarious, the author manages to describe everything in such a funny way that you cannot avoid laughing.

Warning: Do NOT attempt to read this in public if you don't want everyone looking at "that person who just can't stop laughing".  I mean it.

I have a blogpost called "Bill Bryson - Funniest Author ever" where I link to all my Bryson reviews.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.

At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.

Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime’s ambition - not to die outdoors."

Bryson, Bill "The Road to Little Dribbling"

Bryson, Bill "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island" - 2015

"Whenever I feel gloomy with the state of the world, ..." so starts one of my favourite Christmas movies (Love Actually) and it carries on with "I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport". I would end the sentence with "I pick up a book by Bill Bryson and the world is so much better".

As most of my friends know, I love Bill Bryson. My favourite book by him so far was "Notes from a Small Island", a book about the country we both love so much: Great Britain.

Now, he has done it again, he travelled around the island and wrote about the different kind of landscapes, people, funny encounters. It's tough not to laugh when in public, so if you are afraid people will look at you, don't read this when you're out and about. I don't care what people think about me when I read, so I took this book with me wherever I went and even laughed in the waiting room at the dentist.

What I loved about his new book, he grew older, the same way as I did, and the stuff that annoys him now that didn't annoy him twenty years ago, is the same stuff that annoys me now. Yes, we get grumpier and less tolerant of other people's intolerances. And nobody can describe this better than Bill Bryson. The author loves to make fun of his chosen country but he does it in a similar way as the British do it themselves. I have hardly ever met another nation that can laugh about themselves as well as the British. You just have to love that.

Bill Bryson is a grammar nerd, someone who can get upset if people don't use their language correctly, he moans about unnecessary expenses, people who litter any place they get to, stupidity, politics and what it has become, Tripadvisor, all the things that I dislike so much, as well.

But not only that, I love how the author seems to like Kylie Minogue's "talents" just as much as I do. ;) And how he points out that he is an immigrant, that there are highly educated people out there coming from other countries who made Great Britain their home and who hugely contribute to the success of the country and are still considered immigrants. Since I haven't lived in the UK for quite a while, I don't know how much of an issue it is at the moment but I remember someone telling me at the time we lived there that foreigners like us don't count as foreigners because we speak English and integrate well. I have lived in another country for ages, though, as well, and this is exactly how I feel here.

Anyway, this is not just a funny book, there is so much information about history, geography, science, anything in this book. I have learned that even after living in England for decades, he still loves it as much as I do. It is always a pleasure to read Bill Bryson's books. And there are a few places he described that I haven't seen, yet, and still want to visit. My travel list is growing.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation’s heart and became the bestselling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.

Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey round Britain to see what has changed.

Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn’t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain’s occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas.

Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today."

Since he also mentioned a couple of books in his work, I shall list them here, as well:
Morton, H.V. "In Search of England"
Jennings, Ken "Maphead"
Dunning, David; Kruger, Justin "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments"

If you are looking for more of his funny works, have a look at my page about him: Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island"

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island" - 1995

In preparation of Bill Bryson's next book "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island", I just had to reread his first book about my beloved island, Great Britain. It had been far too long that I had picked it up.

I should remember this and will give you this peace of advice: Always pick up a travel book by Bill Bryson when gloomy. It is the best remedy against depression, even if he describes a place I miss so much that it might have started the depression. He is better than any psychologist. Will go and get more of his travel books because I realized that I haven't read all of them, yet.

I have talked about this book before here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover: 

 

"After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson - bestselling author of The Mother Tongue and Made in America - decided to return to the United States. ('I had recently read,' Bryson writes, 'that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so it was clear that my people needed me.') But before departing, he set out on a grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home.

Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

J is for ... Joke Books. 

Someone who always makes me laugh. This is my favourite book by him:
Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island" 

All the books I read by Bill Bryson can be found here.

Bryson, Bill "One Summer"

Bryson, Bill "One Summer: America, 1927" - 2013

What can I say about this book? Bill Bryson belongs to some of my favourite authors. This is certainly not one of my favourite books by him. Not because it's not funny because most of his non-travel books are not necessarily funny. Not because it's about an area I haven't visited because that is the fact with most of the destinations and places in his books, as well.

I think it is mainly because I'm not much interested in sports and there is a lot of it in there, especially of American sports that is even less known to me than what they do over here, just not a fan of group sports, never have been, never will be. But also because I learned a lot of things that really shocked me about people who I hadn't if not admired then at least estimated before. And it's also not that I didn't want to learn that. If someone is not a good person, I'd rather know.

It just seems as if that whole year 1927 was a horrible one and that the picture I get about the United States of America isn't a nice one, either. There is a lot of crime and even more greed in this book. This is probably the first Bill Bryson book I would not want to read again.

It is well written and well researched, as all of his books are. Maybe too well researched. That might be the problem.

It won't keep me from reading any other books of this fabulous author but had it been my first one, I probably wouldn't have tried any more.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Britain's favourite writer of narrative non-fiction Bill Bryson travels back in time to a forgotten summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and, in five eventful months, changed the world for ever.

In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day (and slept much of the rest of the time), a semi-crazed sculptor with a mad plan to carve four giant heads into an inaccessible mountain called Rushmore, a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and a youthful aviator named Charles Lindbergh who started the summer wholly unknown and finished it as the most famous man on earth. (So famous that Minnesota considered renaming itself after him.)

It was the summer that saw the birth of talking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone’s reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan by a madman, the ill-conceived decision that led to the Great Depression, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of a wheezing, over-the-hill baseball player named Babe Ruth, and an almost impossible amount more.

In this hugely entertaining book, Bill Bryson spins a story of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy, with a cast of unforgettable and eccentric characters, with trademark brio, wit and authority."

Read more from this author, I have listed all his books in this post:
Bill Bryson – Funniest Author Ever 

Bryson, Bill "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage"

Bryson, Bill "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage" - 2007

Bill Bryson belongs to one of my favourite authors. I first started to love him for his hilarious travel stories, then admire him for his knowledge about the English language and in the end respect him for his in-depth research into all sorts of knowledge.

He has outdone himself again. I knew that we didn't know much about Shakespeare's life but I never knew that we knew so little. But to make a whole book out of the little that is known and to paint a good picture about one of the most important people in history, that requires quite a talent and I can't imagine a better writer for this than Bill Bryson.

He guides us into the world of playwrights, almost the beginning of theatre as we know it. We visit the England of Elizabeth I with all its glory and horror, we see how people lived and died. All that through the description of one man of whom little is known. But what a man, he had a profound impact on this world, even on today's society. His contribution to the English language is huge and anyone who learns it comes across him at one point or another. Having said that, even if people don't learn the English language, his plays have been translated into every major language, and will have been watched by more people than those of any other writer dead or alive.

And, as I said before, I think only Bill Bryson would know how to tackle this enormous task of writing about someone who has been dead for almost 400 years and left little behind than his plays.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"World-famous writer Bill Bryson brings us this brilliantly readable biography of our greatest dramatist and poet William Shakespeare.

Examining centuries of myths, half-truths and downright lies, Bill Bryson makes sense of the man behind the masterpieces. In a journey through the streets of Shakespeare's time, he brings to life the hubbub of Elizabethan England and a host of characters along the way. Bryson celebrates the glory of Shakespeare’s language - his ceaseless inventiveness gave us hundreds of now indispensable phrases, images and words - and delights in details of his fall-outs and folios, poetry and plays.

Stitching together information from a vast array of sources, he created a unique celebration of one of the most significant, and least understood, figures in history - not to mention a classic piece of Bill Bryson."

See my post about all of his books here.

Bryson, Bill "Icons of England"

Bryson, Bill "Icons of England" - 2008

A book about English Icons written by a true British Icon ... ehm fan. Besides me, he is probably the biggest fan of this beautiful island, only that he knows how to write about it so much better than I do.

Well, this book wasn't really written by Bill Bryson, he is just the editor. But he loves England so much that he thought of this brilliant idea to ask British writers and other celebrities to write about THEIR British Icon, the part of Britain they thought was most British. And that way, we get a collection of all things British and Beautiful, from the red postbox to cathedrals, magical and modern places, typically British animals, food, various different landscapes, forests, beaches, sports, art and history, and - of course - the most important topic of conversation: the weather. Everything together adds up to the wonderful country we all know and love.

And another fan of Rural Britain has written the foreword: HRH The Prince of Wales himself, if that isn't a recommendation, I don't know what is.

My favourite quote by the author himself: "There are particular places in England that come as close to perfection as you're ever likely to find on this planet."

If you want to read more by this fabulous author, I have an extra page for him, check here: Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

If you are more interested in just Britain, I recommend you start with these two books: "Notes from a Small Island" and "At Home".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023 and my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Bill Bryson invited over ninety of our best-loved writers, broadcasters and commentators to pick their 'icons of England'. The resulting celebration of the English countryside is an idiosyncratic and personal collection that ranges across landscape, history, cherished memories and that most English of subjects, the weather.

Contributions from, among others:
Antony Beevor * Alan Titchmarsh * Sebastian Faulks * Michael Palin * Andrew Marr * Rick Stein * Jo Brand * Sister Wendy Beckett * Jonathan Dimbleby * Wendy Cope * Joan Bakewell * Dick Francis * Robert Macfarlane * Melvyn Bragg * Eric Clapton * John Sergeant * Kevin Spacey * Kate Adie * Simon Jenkins * Simon Barnes * Zac Goldsmith * Ronald Blythe * Libby Purves"

Bryson, Bill "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

Bryson, Bill "A Short History of Nearly Everything" - 2003

The title is so true. This is a history of nearly everything, as short as Bill Bryson can be. I'm surprised he managed in just under 700 pages. There is so much information in this book, I wish my science teachers would have been half as informative and concise as he is, I learned more from this book than I did in years of trying to learn just a little about this subject.

Bill Bryson tries to answer the question that is probably as old as humankind, where do we come from and why are we here? He is more philosophical than funny in this book, though he can't hide his great sense of humour totally.

If Bill Bryson wasn't one of my favourite authors anyway, he'd definitely be up there with the top ones now. Everyone should read this book, I think it should be mandatory in all schools. I have never understood science as well as I did when reading this great work.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand - and, if possible, answer - the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining. "

Find links to all my other Bryson reviews here.

Bryson, Bill "At Home"

Bryson, Bill "At Home. A Short History of Private Life" - 2010

One of my favourite authors, Bill Bryson. He travels around the world and makes everyone laugh with his books. This time, he doesn't even leave the house, he describes the history of the world (well, mainly Britain and America) while walking through the different rooms in his house. Highly interesting, highly amusing. One of the easiest way to pick up a lot of knowledge.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"What does history really consist of? Centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - sleeping, eating, having sex, endeavouring to get comfortable.

And where did all these normal activities take place? At home.

This was the thought that inspired Bill Bryson to start a journey around the rooms of his own house, an 1851 Norfolk rectory, to consider how the ordinary things in life came to be. And what he discovered are surprising connections to anything from the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower, from scurvy to body-snatching, from bedbugs to the Industrial Revolution, and just about everything else that has ever happened, resulting in one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live."

I have read so many different books by this guy that I have an extra page for him: Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

Bill Bryson - Funniest Author Ever

What can I say, this is not only one of the funniest guys, he is so full of information on anything, travel, languages, science, history, literature, ... you name it, he knows it. If only every school book was written in such an entertaining manner, kids would certainly learn everything in no time. I have spent many, many happy hours reading anything by him.

I have written a review about most of the books I read (working on the rest), here are the links:

Travel

Afrika: "Bill Bryson's African Diary" - 2002  

Australia: "Down Under" (UK) or "In a Sunburned Country" (US) - 2000

Europe: "The Palace under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries" - 1985
"Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe" - 1991

The UK: "Notes from a Small Island" - 1995 (Reread)
"The Road to Little Dribbling: more Notes from a Small Island" - 2015    

USA: "The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America" - 1989
"A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" -1998  

"Notes from a Big Country" (UK) or "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" (US) - 1999

Language
"The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way" (US) / "Mother Tongue: The English Language" (UK) - 1990
"Made in America" (UK) or "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" (US) - 1994
"Troublesome Words" - 1997

"Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors" – 2008

Science
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" - 2003

"A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. Children's version" - 2008
"On the Shoulders of Giants" - 2009 (editor)
"Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery and the Genius of the Royal Society" - 2010 (editor)
"The Body. A Guide for Occupants" - 2019

Biography
"Shakespeare: The World as Stage" - 2007

History
"At Home: A Short History of Private Life" - 2010

"Icons of England" - 2008 (editor)
"One Summer: America 1927" - 2013

Memoir
"The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - 2006

Why some of his books have to have two different English titles, is beyond me, but that's just the case.

Picture from Goodreads.

Of course, an author like Bill Bryson, also has his own website.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

Bryson, Bill "The Lost Continent"

Bryson, Bill "The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America" - 1989

What can be more fun than going on a trip through the USA with America's most hilarious travel writer. Especially when he sees it after having lived abroad for several years, so with almost foreign eyes. He starts in his hometown Des Moines in Iowa ("where somebody has to come from") and goes from East to West.

As with all his other books, I really loved this one.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023 and my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back title:

"'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to'

And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set. Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. Travelling around thirty-eight of the lower states - united only in their mind-numbingly dreary uniformity - he discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.

The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature - hilariously, stomach-achingly funny, yet tinged with heartache - and the book that first staked Bill Bryson's claim as the most beloved writer of his generation."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Bryson, Bill "Troublesome Words"

Bryson, Bill "Troublesome Words" - 1997

Somewhere I read that this book was an amalgam of reference and humour. I can't think of any other author who fits this description better than Bill Bryson. Let's just look at “Troublesome Words”. A great reference book for any questions you might have about the English language, even if it is your mother tongue.

This book is almost a dictionary that gives you so much to look at - on any questions you might have about written English. Bill Bryson is well-known as a travel book author but he is just as great with his language books. He quotes both British and American newspapers - as an American lived in Britain and married to a Brit, he is certainly an expert on the differences between those two "languages". You can also find a glossary on grammar and punctuation. But, even if you're not interested in that part, this book is worth reading in any case, it's hilarious.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Why should I avoid discussing the 'weather conditions'?

Can a woman be 'celibate'?

When can I use 'due to', or should I play safe and always use 'because of'?

What's wrong with the way I'm using 'crescendo'?

This book provides a simple guide to the more perplexing and contentious issues of standard written English. The entries are discussed with wit and common sense, and are illustrated with examples of questionable usage taken from leading British and American newspapers.

No familiarity with English grammar is needed to learn from this book, although a glossary of grammatical terms is included and there us also an appendix on punctuation.

Journalists, copy-writers and secretaries will find this an invaluable handbook, and it will also be a highly enjoyable book for the word-buff."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.