The Author: Bill BrysonPublisher: Doubleday Random House, 2010
Length: 497 pages
My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
The Preface: Okay, first — my confession: I am a Bill Bryson junkie. If he wrote "The Complete and Authoritative History of 17th Century Buggywhips — Volume I," I would buy it remorselessly and consume it instantly.
That said, I spent quite a bit of time traveling for Fred Meyer throughout the month of October and, as is the custom, I spent my fair share of time in airport shops looking for magazines, newspapers, and other forms of distractions from the impending white-knuckle terror of flight. In one shop (I forget where I was) I saw this book stacked-out prominently and it accompanied me on that flight and every other until I was done with my travels. It was, in short, my woobie.
That said, I spent quite a bit of time traveling for Fred Meyer throughout the month of October and, as is the custom, I spent my fair share of time in airport shops looking for magazines, newspapers, and other forms of distractions from the impending white-knuckle terror of flight. In one shop (I forget where I was) I saw this book stacked-out prominently and it accompanied me on that flight and every other until I was done with my travels. It was, in short, my woobie.
My Review: As Bryson explains at the outset of his book, he lives in an old Victorian parsonage in eastern England that was constructed in 1851. He was inspired to walk through each room in his house andvicariously tell the history of the world through many of the items found in each room (or perhaps, more generally, through many of the concepts associated with each room). In so doing, he is thus able to tell tales about the origins of certain words (curfew, limey, and comfortable to name just a few); examine the history of the modern city; explain the origins of some of the trivial, yet vexing idiosyncrasies of life (why do men's sports jackets have three useless buttons on the cuff?); and introduce some of the more interesting saints and scoundrels throughout the past.
As is his style, Bryson writes with self-effacing humor, wit, and a evocative prose that keeps the book moving and enjoyable. However, most books are not without their shortcomings, and "At Home" contains its fair share. Perhaps my greatest frustration with the book is that it never seemed to be completely faithful to its premise of "journeying about the house from room to room to 'write a history of the world without leaving home.'" Infrequently enough, the book felt like a stream-of-conscientiousness effort wherein Bryson was bound and determined to shoehorn in some particular narrative he found interesting or droll - but secretly would admit that it doesn't fit organically into the rest of the narrative. The result of this is that I found myself starting to skim from time to time and flipping ahead to see how many pages were left in the chapter and until we could hit the "reset" button and start over with a new room.
Nevertheless - the book is enticing, interesting, and rewarding. If I were to be asked what author would do the best job at tackling a project like this - I would have to say (quite quickly) that Bill Bryson would be my top choice, if not my only choice. Hopefully, I won't have to be forced to climb aboard a highly-pressured metal tube and flung through the air at 35,000 feet in order to enjoy his next book.
As is his style, Bryson writes with self-effacing humor, wit, and a evocative prose that keeps the book moving and enjoyable. However, most books are not without their shortcomings, and "At Home" contains its fair share. Perhaps my greatest frustration with the book is that it never seemed to be completely faithful to its premise of "journeying about the house from room to room to 'write a history of the world without leaving home.'" Infrequently enough, the book felt like a stream-of-conscientiousness effort wherein Bryson was bound and determined to shoehorn in some particular narrative he found interesting or droll - but secretly would admit that it doesn't fit organically into the rest of the narrative. The result of this is that I found myself starting to skim from time to time and flipping ahead to see how many pages were left in the chapter and until we could hit the "reset" button and start over with a new room.
Nevertheless - the book is enticing, interesting, and rewarding. If I were to be asked what author would do the best job at tackling a project like this - I would have to say (quite quickly) that Bill Bryson would be my top choice, if not my only choice. Hopefully, I won't have to be forced to climb aboard a highly-pressured metal tube and flung through the air at 35,000 feet in order to enjoy his next book.
Amazon page: At Home
