Before New York Times bestselling author Bill Bryson wrote The Road to Little Dribbling, he took this delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation of Great Britain, which has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie’s Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey.
Notes from a Small Island
By billbryson
I’m a fan of Bill Bryson anyway so this book was a great read. I have visited England, Scotland, and Ireland before and fell in love with them. To hear Bryson describe the towns and their residents was a wonderful trip to all the places I wasn’t able to visit.
Kind of boring. I don’t know what I expected, but I loved “The Thunderbolt Kid” and was not happy with “Notes from a Small Island”. Sorry.
If you’ve ever been to England, this will ring hilariously true! Out-loud chuckles all the way through!
Towards the middle of this book, I realized that the author was a grumpy older man with issues with women. I then started to skip some sections.
This as very entertaining, and a fairly quick read. I really enjoyed his “victory tour” of England!
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
Not really my kind of book. I have read many of Bill Bryson’s books and always liked his style. You might like it. I struggled page by page.
It was funny at first, but as he wandered from one small village to another, they all began to seem very predictable and very much the same.
Being English and having lived in the USA for the last 30 years, my voyage is the opposite of Bill Bryson. So many of the quirks had not changed others had. The final result was to make me realize that I am a total stranger in my home land
Bryson is an incredible author
I love Bill Bryson’s books. He is so funny in his writing, he has me on stitches the whole time. Very informative about life in the U.K. and very entertaining at the same time.
Delightful, witty view of life in UK along with a knowledgeable description of places and people.
As a former inhabitant of the British Isles, I took exception to a lot of the descriptions of Britain in this book. It was obviously written some time ago.It was written with humor so, if taken with a pinch of salt, it is quite entertaining. However, if he means what he writes, I’m surprised he ever wanted to live there.
Anything Bill Bryson writes is worth reading. He is a wonderful humorist.
I’m a Bill Bryson fan and this book was no disappointment. Easy-going and informative, and filled with Bryson’s unique way of looking at the world. I enjoyed seeing parts of England though his eyes and occasionally laughing out loud at his “insights”.
Very fun and funny. The last quarter of the book was repetitive.
This book is completely marvelous. You’ll learn a lot about Great Britain and you will enjoy every minute of it. He travels around England and Scotland and tells you all about it which rather sounds boring but it’s anything but. It is laugh out loud funny and yet you will learn a great deal about these wonderful coutries. Seriously great book.
feels like he thought he was going to get a lot more out of the trip than he did, but he was under contract to write a book about it one way or another, so he did. Which I’m all for authors gritting their teeth and getting it done, but it feels very forced. I like a good travelogue as much (or more!) than anyone, and there’s just not much here.
This was an OK read. Bryson’s “A walk in woods” was better. This kind of just let you walk or ride through Britain, but without a greater understanding.
There were some funny parts but for someone not familiar with England it was too detailed!