Rating: 
Summary: Funny but repetitive trip across England, Scotland...
Review: This often hilarious book (I listened to the excellent unabridged casette narrated by William Roberts, not Mr. Bryson) is perfect for Americans with an interest in merry old England (or Scotland for that matter) and its many bizarre quirks. It's also a treat for Brits who want a different take on their homeland. Since my father is English but my mother American, it was great fun for the whole family, despite the rather frequent use of profanity.I suppose I should also warn you that Bryson is a bit of a grump, and if this book is wholely truthful, he must be one of the absolute worst travel planners in world history. He seems to find only hapless hotels and seedy dives along the way. (If his guidebook was so bad, you'd think he'd buy a second). He's also an extreme cheapskate. So mark, this is NOT a travel guide. This is rather more of an anti-travel guide with humorous misadventures. Along the way we learn that:
1) Bryson really, really hates modern architecture and really, really loves old stuff (even when it turns out to be fake).
2) Bryson really, really hates cars and parking lots and really, really loves trains, especially ones that serve no known purpose. One other criticism: Bryson seems convinced that we, the reader, are fascinated by HIS idiosyncracies and weirdnesses, sometimes to the point of tedium. But he is not the story, the small island is. That's why this only gets 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book by Bryson... very funny in places
Review: Bill Bryson's keen eye and gift for writing come together in this book. Who better than a foreigner to write a book like this?
Rating:
Summary: This book is great travel commentary
Review: I am tired of reading of how people heard that Bryson is a whiner and went out and bought the book anyway. Makes no sense. I too am American, lived in England for an extended period of time - 5 years - held a job there, used the NHS, used the rails that he speaks so much of in this book and I will tell you that his commentary on British society is very much the same outlook and experience that I had. Just like many people are bewildered when visiting America, I too was bewildered when living in England - most importantly because we share the same language, many customs, yet we are very different. If you don't like reading travel commentary and like to think that England hasn't changed since Victoria then this book isn't for you. It is however interesting and pokes fun at british nature. If you're too serious to have a laugh then please don't buy it - it will might cause you to smile!
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Summary: Bryson is SO boring!
Review: I can't believe how boring this writer is. In this book we find the tedium of endless rain, endless hotels and boarding houses all described in remorseless and unforgiving attention to every flaw, endless indifferent meals, endless penny-pinching ..... I thought I would scream if I read just one more formless complaint about the built environment and especially about changes - there are always changes. Complaints and complaints and complaints - trains and buses, fellow travellers, - it goes on and on. But then there are the almost unbelievable enthusiasms popping up. How can we believe them in the face of all the griping, all the apparent misery?
But then you may note I have given this book four stars. How come? Well, simply, it's one of the funniest books I've read in ages. It's Mr Bryson who is boring - not his writing. At one stage Bryson travelled through a series of Welsh towns whose names all sound 'like a cat coughing up a furball'. In fact, Bryson has a wonderful perspective on place names, which I gather he has carried all around the world. (My personal favourite names are not the wierdly humorous but the evocative - especially Canadian ones like Medicine Hat and Swift Current - but I do like Bryson's perspective.)
I have only visited the UK once but I did visit some of Bryson's tour destinations - Stonehenge, of course, but also Edinburgh, Ludlow and Morecambe. I don't think Mr Bryson really added much to what I knew of these places (except Morecambe perhaps) but I did enjoy passing through them again.
I enjoyed this book but I much prefer Paul Theroux as a travel writer (and he's very funny too), and Mr Bryson doesn't hide the fact that he too has read Theroux.
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Summary: Regrettably, I can only give this book 5 stars!
Review: Comparisons between this book and Theroux's Kingdom by the Sea are inevitable. In fact, Bryson even refers to Theroux's book several times. But the comparison is a legitimate one, for both Theroux and Bryson set out to travel around all or part of Great Britain, taking public transportation, or their own feet, as much as possible. Here, however, the similarity ends.
Whereas Theroux didn't seem to enjoy much of anything, Bryson provides much more of a range of experience. He tells us enthusiastically about the things he likes, and tells us explicitly about the things he doesn't like. And he admits there are things, like cricket, he just plain doesn't understand. And he is enough of an adult to tell us when he has goofed up, as he does when he is locked out of his hotel and, when finally admitted, berates the manager for his being locked out so early in the evening. The next morning, Bryson tells us, he apologizes to the manager, who is extremely gracious about the whole incident. So in one small episode, Bryson reveals much about his own character AND that of the English.
Bryson's style is perfect for such a book. He occasionally uses such ploys as "Does anyone else feel this way?" This serves to bring the reader into the story and, although it sounds hokey, it works very well indeed. Lovely, as the Brits might express it. Bryson also mentions his family, how he met his wife, and the joy he felt when he returned home late in the trip, peering in at his family through the window before letting his presence be known.
So the author is comfortable enough to let us see him, warts and all, as he attempts to understand the country where he has spent many years and is, at the time of writing, leaving.
If you are contemplating visiting England, read this book. If you have just returned from England, read this book. If you are purely an armchair traveler, read this book. If you have ever heard of England, read this book. There! Does that cover everyone? And by the way, leave Mr. Theroux on the shelf, there to gather its well-deserved dust.
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Summary: Been there and done that!
Review: If you have traveled anywhere in Great Britain you will love this book. I tried to read it years ago, but did not finish the book. This year I read it while traveling on the small island and it was a blast! So, if you are from that part of the world, or have traveled there, or are an anglophile, you will enjoy this fun, fast read. Others need not apply. Bryson is hysterical but caveaat emptor: some profanity.
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Summary: Honest, Entertaining, Insightful
Review: The golden retriever in a cat suit who sprawls on my lap when I read demotes this book to one star for not being solemn enough. I often writhed with laughter, accidentally dislodging the other critic which left him disenchanted. Since I am the one who can type, however, the book gets all five stars. NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND is a tour of contemporary England, taken in 1994 when the author, an American, was about to move his family stateside after two decades on said island. Bill Bryson ranges far and wide, giving us a broad civic tour. He travels by foot, bus and train and, ever so briefly, by rental car. He has a sharp eye for reporting the layers of human endeavor or whim that are stacked on English soil. In his 20 years on that ground, he has obviously absorbed the national penchant for irony and wit and uses adjectives and adverbs like a native. Words like "splendid," "properly" and "crushingly" dot his prose without affectation. He includes a glossary at the back, but is apparently unaware that far more words and phrases that are now second nature to him still require some explanation over here. What is a flyover? Bryson does not hesitate to speak his mind. While he is quick to pounce on folly and annoyances, he is equally quick to offer heartfelt praise where due. Much of the laugh-out-loud humor is at his own expense; he takes a spectacular pratfall every once in awhile. With impeccable rhythm, he integrates observation, history, storytelling and the occasional stand-up comedy riffs (some belonging to the lower rungs of the comedy ladder, some a little higher). The result is that I feel closer to England, have discovered an engaging writer and have toned the abs a bit for all the laughing.
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Summary: Scotland; the top part of England
Review: Don't get me wrong, Bill Bryson is my God. But it isn't his best book ever ( though infinately better than any other book I've ever read about Britain). Bryson is so, so, so funny. But I did read A Walk in The Woods first, which made it tough to find anything as hilarious. My own fualt, I know. Perhaps he could have gone to more out of the way, impossibly gorgeous/rundown towns in SCOTLAND, but I could just be biased, being a Scot. It IS hard for some Americans to not percieve Scotland as just being North of England, and I thought Bryson was different. We have dumb place-names and ridiculous traditions too, you know! But, like I said, I think it's just me being Biased and patriotic. I still reckon you should read the book. Whether you love Britain or hate it. Bryson's a funny guy, he makes it worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: good notes, but just notes
Review: If I received these chapters as a series of letters from Mr. Bryson, then I would have been quite impressed and enjoyed them a great deal. I merely enjoyed the read because Mr. Bryson is a very funny guy. I would probably like to have a beer with Mr. Bryson, actually several, as he seemed to enjoy doing, but I'm not sure that I would like to travel with him. One thing that I can get quite enough of in a travel book is the I-am-so-inept act. Mr. Bryson pushes this a little beyond what I have patience for. He is not, however, a one-schtick pony, which makes his books well within bearable bounds. I myself have been accused of being an Anglophile, although I have only visited England and Scotland a couple of times and never stayed for more than a few weeks. I have gained an affection for the British through their media (radio, television, magazines) and their literature (I was an English major). Mr. Bryson's book articulates many, many of the tics, traits and traditions that make the British so lovable and so maddening. Be prepared for one long valentine to vernacular British culture and its inhabitants. When Mr. Bryson goes on a negative rant it is almost invariably directed at 'the modern world' rather than anything that is peculiarly British. There are exceptions to this rule, but these scenes always leave room for the possibility that Mr. Bryson's outrage is in fact caused by his own shortcomings rather than by the focus of his anger and frustration. By moving from the Midwest to England Mr. Bryson went from one culture that does not express emotion all that well to another that isn't exactly known for it. This is reflected in his narrative. Whenever he is presented with the opportunity to wax truly and personally rhapsodic he contrives some excuse or deploys some device to avoid it. This refusal to take that step means that he remains a rung or two below travel writers like Paul Theroux (whom he mentions several times) who deign to bare (what they would have you believe is) their own souls in their books. Mr. Bryson surprised me in his later book on the Appalachian Trail by doing just that a few times. I look forward to his continued maturation as a writer. For now I am content to laugh both with him and at him.
Rating:
Summary: A Touching, Funny Goodbye
Review: Bill Bryson, a Midwesterner living in Britian, decided to move his family back to the States. Before he left, however, he took one 7-week journey through the country he inhabited for almost 20 years. Notes from a Small Island is the humourous, sentimental result. Bryson's journeys take him from well-known British locales like London and Edinburgh to little-known haunts such as Durham. Through the whole of the journey Bryson provides a welcome mix of historical fact, political commentary, and his trademark wit. At some places, he waxes sentimental about those places where he has the fondest memories (a mental institution where he met his wife - a nurse) and those he will miss the most, like his lovely old stone cottage. At the end, you come to an understanding of why Bryson loves the country and people. The book is well recommended to anyone with an interest in Britian; or anyone who has enjoyed Bryson's other books!
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