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Bill Bryson

61 replies

chickensaresafehere · 23/05/2014 10:27

I have never read any Bill Bryson books before but would like to give one a go.
Which one should I read first?

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 23/05/2014 17:50

his humour is dry with no hint of nastiness

it's a very special skill

< starts writing dinner invites >

AnyFucker · 23/05/2014 17:50

I think we need a MN webchat with Bill

JodieGarberJacob · 23/05/2014 17:50

I met him at a book-signing. He's luuuuuvlyGrin Have been a fan since Lost Continent which is still my favourite, followed by Down Under, Big Country and Walk in the Woods. I once had a boyfriend who looked just like him, all big and cuddly!

Weegiemum · 23/05/2014 17:52

One of my very favourite authors - I love his "Short History of Nearly Everything" the best.

OverAndAbove · 23/05/2014 17:54

Ah, A Walk in The Woods is brilliant and an excellent place to start! Then you will be into his way of story telling and Notes from a Small Island is good to follow with!

ihatethecold · 23/05/2014 17:55

He is my fav author.
Always makes me laugh.
Down under has been read many times.

BikeRunSki · 23/05/2014 18:01

Small Island to start with if you're from anywhere in the UK
Neither Here.... If you are from elsewhere in Europe
Lost Continent if you are American etc

UriGeller · 24/05/2014 13:57

Oh Miranda you're right!

SouthernComforts · 24/05/2014 14:11

Me too AnyFucker. I love him. I first started reading BB when I was around 14, and I've since read every book he's written at least once.

lemonpoppyseed · 24/05/2014 14:11

I would read the cereal box if Bill Bryson wrote it. I met him once, at a book signing. He was lovely, just as you would expect Grin

TheOneWithTheNicestSmile · 24/05/2014 14:21

I'm a Stranger Here Myself = US edition of Notes from a Big Country

(So don't buy both!)

DD1 went to a book signing of his & was more besotted than ever. She says he's just as funny as he seems & even lovelier than in the books Smile

The US piece about his younger son wanting him to play ball has me in tears every time. (the one about people being injured by their underwear also, but the other kind! Grin)

SconeRhymesWithGone · 24/05/2014 16:59

I can't believe I had not read I'm a Stranger Here Myself. I ordered it last night for my kindle and stayed up most of the night laughing myself silly. I spent some time in the UK as a student and some of the re-entry cultural issues I can really identify with, like not remembering what the US term for something was.

lemonmuffin1 · 24/05/2014 17:09

Notes from a small island, definitely.

It's brilliant and never fails to cheer me up.

BrianButterfield · 24/05/2014 17:20

I remember bits from Bill Bryson all the time! Niyes from a Big Country is fun to dip into. I like the way he can write accurate observations about men and women without becoming sexist:

"
Although the store had only just opened, the food hall was busy and there were long queues at the tills. I took a place in a line behind eight other shoppers. They were all women and they all did the same mystifying thing: they acted surprised when it came time to pay. This is something that has been puzzling me for years. Women will stand there watching their items being rung up, and then when the till lady says, That's four-twenty, love,' or whatever, they suddenly look as if they've never done this sort of thing before. They go 'Oh!' and start rooting in a flustered fashion in their handbag for their purse or chequebook, as if no-one had told them that this might happen.
Men, for all their many shortcomings, like washing large pieces of oily machinery in the kitchen sink or forgetting that a painted
door stays wet for more than thirty seconds, are generally pretty good when it comes to paying. They spend their time in line doing a wallet inventory and sorting through their coins. When the till person announces the bill, they immediately hand over an approximately correct amount of money, keep their hand extended for the change however long it takes or foolish they may begin to look if there is, say, a problem with the till roll, and then - mark this -pocket their change as they walk away instead of deciding that now is the time to search for the car keys and reorganize six months' worth of receipts.
And while we're on this rather daring sexist interlude, why is it that women never push toothpaste tubes up from the bottom and always try to get somebody else to change a lightbulb? How are they able to smell and hear things that are so clearly beyond the range of human acuity, and how do they know from another room that you are about to dip a finger into the icing of a freshly made cake? Why, above all, do they find it so unsettling if you spend more than four minutes a day on the toilet? This last is another long-standing mystery to me. A woman of my close acquaintance and I regularly have surreal conversations that run something like this:
'What are you doing in there?' (This said in an edgy tone.) 'I'm descaling the kettle. What do you think I'm doing in here?' 'You've been in there half an hour. Are you reading?' 'No.'
'You're reading, aren't you? I can hear the pages.' 'Honestly, I'm not.' That is to say, I was reading until a minute ago but now, of course, I'm talking to you, dear.
'Have you covered up the keyhole? I can't see anything.' 'Please tell me that you're not down on your hands and knees trying to look through the keyhole at your husband having a bowel movement in his own bathroom. Please.'
'You come out of there now. You've been in there for nearly three-quarters of an hour just reading.'
As she retreats, you sit there thinking, Did all that really just happen or have I wandered into a Dada exhibition? And then, shaking your head, you return to your magazine.
Still, it must be said that women are great with children, vomit and painted doors - three months after a painted door has dried they will still be touching it as if suspecting it might turn on them - which makes up for a lot, so I smiled benignly at the parade offlustered ladies ahead of me until it was my turn to demonstrate to the ones following how to do this sort of thing properly, but frankly I don't think they took it in."

ForgiveMeFather · 24/05/2014 17:29

MNHQ can we get Bill Bryson in for a web chat - pretty please??

HumphreyCobbler · 24/05/2014 17:35

I love that bit BrianButterfield. But I did laugh when someone on here started a thread about how irritating it was when people weren't ready with their purse at the checkout and their arse was handed to them on a plate. I said at the time Bill Bryson finds it annoying too.

I love his books. Home is my favourite, followed by Walk In The Woods. THunderbolt Kid is hilarious.

NotALondoner · 24/05/2014 17:46

In Down Under, I love the cricket description and the walk through ?Sydney? where he ends up being chased by a dog.

Just marvellous.

JodieGarberJacob · 24/05/2014 17:49

Even the opening line of Lost Continent is funny. 'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.' Grin

CocktailQueen · 24/05/2014 17:51

I love Bill Bryson!! His travel books are great and I liked his recent history book, House, but can't get into his Short history of almost everything.

My faves are Lost continent, A walk in the woods, and Notes from a small island.

He makes me snort with laughter.

BrianButterfield · 24/05/2014 17:53

This is exactly like something I would do, and has made me laugh until I cried on several readings:

" I had just a moment to note that the rain had eased a little and that the street was flooded, evidently from a clogged drain, when a red Fiesta sped through the puddle at great speed and unusually close to the kerb, transferring nearly all the water from the puddle and on to me.
To say that I was drenched barely hints at my condition. I was as soaked as if I had fallen into the sea. As I stood there spluttering and gasping, the car slowed, three close-cropped heads popped out the windows, shouted some happy greeting along the lines of 'Nyaa-nyaa, nyaa-nyaa!' and sped off. Glumly, I walked back along the prom, squelching with each step and shivering with cold. I don't wish to reduce this cheery chronicle to pathos, but I had only recently recovered from a fairly serious bout of pneumonia. I won't say that I nearly died, but I was ill enough to watch This Morning with Richard and Judy, and I certainly didn't want to be in that condition again. To add to my indignity, the Fiesta came past on a victory lap and its pleasure-starved occupants slowed to offer me another triumphal 'Nyaa-nyaa' before speeding off into the night with a screech and a brief, uncontrolled fishtail slide that unfortunately failed to bury them in a lamppost.
By the time I reached my distant hotel, I was feeling thoroughly chilled and wretched. So imagine my consternation, if you will, when I discovered that the reception area was in semi-darkness and the door was locked. I looked at my watch. It was only nine o'clock, for Christ sake. What kind of town was this? There were two doorbells, and I tried them both but without response. I tried my room key in the door and of course it didn't work. I tried the bells again, leaning on them both for many minutes and growing increasingly angry. When this elicited no satisfaction, I banged on the glass door with the flat of my hand, then with a fist and finally with a stout boot and a touch of frenzy. I believe I may also have filled the quiet streets with shouting.
Eventually the proprietor appeared at the top of some basement stairs, looking surprised. 'I'm so sorry, sir,' he said mildly as he unlocked the door and let me in. 'Have ypu been out there long?' Well, I blush to think at how I ranted at the poor man. I used immoderate language. I sounded like Graham Taylor before they led him off and took away his warm-up suit. I accused him and his fellow townspeople of appalling shortages of intelligence and charm. I told him that I had just passed the dreariest evening of my life in this God-forsaken hell-hole of a resort, that I had been
soaked to the skin by a earful of young men who between them were ten IQ points short of a moron, that I had walked a mile in wet clothes, and had now spent nearly half an hour shivering in the cold because I had been locked out of my own hotel at nine o'clock in the fucking evening.
'May I remind you,' I went on in a shrill voice, 'that two hours ago you said goodbye to me, watched me go out the door and disappear down the street. Did you think I wasn't coming back? That I would sleep in a park and return for my things in the morning? Or is it merely that you are a total imbecile? Please tell me because I would very much like to know.'
The proprietor flinchingly soaked up my abuse and responded with fluttering hands and a flood of apologies. He offered me a tray of tea and sandwiches, to dry and press my wet clothes, to escort me to my room and turn on my radiator personally. He did everything but fall to my feet and beg me to run him through with a sabre. He positively implored me to let him bring me something warming on a tray.
'I don't want anything but to go to my room and count the minutes until I get out of this fucking dump!' I shouted, perhaps a trifle theatrically but to good effect, and stalked up the stairs to the first floor where I plodded about heatedly in the corridor for some minutes and realized that I didn't have the faintest idea which was my room. There was no number on the key.
I returned to the reception area, now once more in semi-darkness, and put my head by the basement door. 'Excuse me,' I said in a small voice, 'could you please tell me what room I'm in?'
'Number twenty-seven, sir,' came a voice from the darkness.
I stood for some time without moving. 'Thank you,' I said.
'It's quite all right, sir,' came the voice. 'Have a good night.'
I frowned and cleared my throat. Thank you,' I said again and retired to my room, where the night passed without incident."

ExitPursuedByABear · 24/05/2014 17:56

I loved the one about the history of the house. Sooooo many facts crammed in to one place.

Actually, it made me feel a bit inadequate.

Hakluyt · 24/05/2014 17:58

They make fab audio books too.

SconeRhymesWithGone · 24/05/2014 17:58

Yes, no one is better at triggering that delightful shock of recognition in the way he describes experiences.

SconeRhymesWithGone · 24/05/2014 17:59

And I love his hybrid accent.

JodieGarberJacob · 24/05/2014 18:00

Have just looked on his website and apparently there is a film about to be made of 'A Walk in the Woods' with Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson among others. Not sure how I feel about this! I'm always disappointed with films of books that I particularly like.

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