Bill Bryson..

[The Octagon]

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone can dislike Bryson?

Surely that's like kicking your grandad (if your grandad was a mildly clumsy and bumbling author with a passion for his adopted country).

And Notes from a Big Country is very, very funny.

 

[isitme]

I never really saw any similarities between him and PJ O'Rourke

 

[Iam]

I never really saw any similarities between him and PJ O'Rourke

Have a read around, perhaps you'll grasp why I said that...

 

[sojourner]

I've got Made in America as a dip-into-when-I'm-knackered bedtime book.

I enjoy/ed it

 

[Orang Utan]

I've got Made in America as a dip-into-when-I'm-knackered bedtime book.

I enjoy/ed it

I liked it buy my Dad (a linguist) says it's mostly bollocks.

 

[spanglechick]

it's gentle, reliable. like clive james. sunday supplement writing.

i didn't like "a short history..." but i liked the other stuff i've read. i just bought his book on shakespeare, as it happens.

 

[El Jefe]

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone can dislike Bryson?

Surely that's like kicking your grandad (if your grandad was a mildly clumsy and bumbling author with a passion for his adopted country).

And Notes from a Big Country is very, very funny.

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone could like the unfunny old cock. Guess we're quits.

He's NOT funny (O'Rourke often is). He's got some very dodgy attitudes (not only the strike-breaking thing, but he's pretty fucking patronising about women too). His "satire" isn't. He's just lame.

I could put up with the reactionary fogeyism if he were funny with it, but he's not.

 

[onenameshelley]

my brother bought me a bill bryson book about shakespeare, i wanted the 3rd part of the nightwatch triology, so you can imagine how unimpressed i was.

 

[linerider]

And the 'Short History Of Nearly Everything' was good for a total novice to get his head around major scientific ideas.

I'm reading it at the moment so please don't tell me the ending and ruin it for me.

 

[Scarlette]

I find the Small Island one really soothing for some reason. I used to read it if I was having anxiety stuff.

 

[Gromit]

is...

... still being published after all these years. Jammy bastard. Wish i had his luck.

 

[Idaho]

I don't like him. I think he's mediocre. And most damning, for a travel writer he is small minded and xenophobic. He has that thing that so many homespun US writers have of believing, fundamentally, that parochial white, middle class american suburbia is the natural model for humanity.

 

[El Jefe]

I don't like him. I think he's mediocre. And most damning, for a travel writer he is small minded and xenophobic. He has that thing that so many homespun US writers have of believing, fundamentally, that parochial white, middle class american suburbia is the natural model for humanity.

<applauds>

 

[theCIA]

have read a few of his books, find him very amusing.

 

[Dillinger4]

I think a lot of travel writers are cunts in some way or another. Look at Paul Theroux.

 

[Dan U]

Notes from a Small Island was the best for me but possibly as I am British?

Paul Theroux's travel book about the UK is very good as well. he came in like 1982 or something when things were fairly shit and loved it.

 

[ebay sex moomin]

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone could like the unfunny old cock. Guess we're quits.

yeah, well boring writer.

I read the bit he came to manchester in notes from a small island. If you know manchester, you get the idea he just wandered around aimlessly near some some very dull parts of town, without speaking to anyone. Now that's what I call research!

he was wandering round some sub-industrial zone going, 'oh, there's really nothing to do here!'

 

[Maggot]

And the 'Short History Of Nearly Everything' was good for a total novice to get his head around major scientific ideas.

I'm impressed by someone who can write a book like Notes from a small island which had me in stiches and then cover all science ever in the above book in a way which was interesting and managed to convey complex subjects in a way which was easy to understand.

 

[Brainaddict]

I do find him funny. I don't think he gives accurate descriptions of the places he visits, but I don't think he intends to most of the time. He's not the heavily researched type of travel writer. He just bums around to pick up a few anecdotes. I don't think it's offensive in itself. If you're reading Bill Bryson for an accurate description of the places he visits you will pick up some funny ideas, but if that's your idea of learning about the world then there's no hope for you anyway.

 

[goldenecitrone]

I don't like him. I think he's mediocre. And most damning, for a travel writer he is small minded and xenophobic. He has that thing that so many homespun US writers have of believing, fundamentally, that parochial white, middle class american suburbia is the natural model for humanity.

Don't agree. On his travels round Europe he always seemed quite self-conscious of his Americanness. Okay, he churned out a few cliches about the Germans and French, but even cliches have a basis in truth. He's not in the same league as Jonathon Raban, simply chewing gum for the mind when one has nothing more stimulating to hand.

 

[madamv]

I stopped reading him after about the third book because he started to annoy me.

My apathy kinda came around the same time I joined here, which on the whole, has made me a touch more cynical than I have ever been....

 

[spanglechick]

yeah, well boring writer.

I read the bit he came to manchester in notes from a small island. If you know manchester, you get the idea he just wandered around aimlessly near some some very dull parts of town, without speaking to anyone. Now that's what I call research!

he was wandering round some sub-industrial zone going, 'oh, there's really nothing to do here!'

he wasn't writing a guide book! just his impressions. his whole shtick, fwiw, is befuddled bemusement - how the world he sees wrongfoots him. if he talked to people and started understanding, wtf woud he have to write about.

the books aren't really travel writing, imo - they're memoirs.

 

[ebay sex moomin]

he wasn't writing a guide book! just his impressions. his whole shtick, fwiw, is befuddled bemusement - how the world he sees wrongfoots him. if he talked to people and started understanding, wtf woud he have to write about.

I prefer Nick Broomfield's befuddled schtick... or Louis Theroux's...

Bryson came across as dismissive on the basis of little evidence. It's like if I went to London, hung around King's Cross for a bit then went on the London Eye, and based a whole chapter of a book on that experience. 'oh, I know about London- it's all hookers, crack and massive wheels!'

 

[spanglechick]

I prefer Nick Broomfield's befuddled schtick... or Louis Theroux's...

Bryson came across as dismissive on the basis of little evidence. It's like if I went to London, hung around King's Cross for a bit then went on the London Eye, and based a whole chapter of a book on that experience. 'oh, I know about London- it's all hookers, crack and massive wheels!'

but that wouldn't bother me. there are bits like that, you can't see it all... but presumablyy he'd say it in a nice turn of phrase bringing to mind a twinkle in the eye and a harmless middle-aged bemusement.

nick broomfield and louis therous are making a social comment. bryson is just being a bit amusing.

 

[Santino]

If you're criticising Bryson for his lack of research and insight you're kind of missing the point.

 

[lontok2005]

Years ago I read 'Notes From a Small Island' and enjoyed it. I also read 'A Short History of Everything' some time ago and quite enjoyed some of the stories of the lives and personalities behind the science (all of which I have forgotten now), although I didn't think the writing stood out much at all. Then somebody bought me 'Mother Tongue: The English Language', and I couldn't get beyond the opening chapter. Not only is a lot of what he presents factually wrong linguistically, he also starts with the extremely dodgy premise that English is somehow inherently better than all other languages. Maybe if it makes you millions in royalties over the years, you might come to believe that, but such arrogance (and scant regard for factual accuracy) has put me right off reading anything else by him.

 

[quimcunx]

Well his books have made me laugh out loud and I like to pick them up when I haven't got anything else I fancy reading around.

I'm not sure why people are commenting on his politics. He's not a political commentator. PJ O'Rourke is, more so.

That said I enjoyed A Short History but I didn't think it wasn't a particularly informative science book. It seemed to concentrate on the history and personal stories of the scientists and barely skim the surface of the science.

 

[HackneyE9]

I didn't know he was a Wapping scab?

 

[soulman]

Read one years ago and quickly realised he's a middle class prick, with all that entails...

 

[zoltan]

I didn't know he was a Wapping scab?

He details it beriefly in his notes from a small island.though not in "scab" terms obv.

I like some of his his stuff cos it does have some wonderful facts in it, but using as a travel guide, its a bit bogus