Rating: 
Summary: Depressing!
Review: I am a dedicated anglophile, so I thought I would enjoy reading this book. Boy was I wrong. As the above reviewer said, all Bryson does is complain. The whole book is about how things have gone from bad to intolerable since 1973. I read about 5 chapters before I went into a blue funk about my upcoming trip to Great Britain. The book is going back!
Rating: 
Summary: Notes from a BillBryson fan.
Review: How anyone cannot love this book is beyond me. Bill Bryson is a funny funny man. The story about meeting his wife in the mental hospital is priceless. His humour is brilliant, his insight is to the bone. He has an opinion on everything and is right on the mark with all the things he loves and condemns, nailing a situation very susinctly. I have read almost all of his books and they are all exceptionally good. He's funny, irreverant, charming and informed and he weaves it all together seamlessy. Having lived in England for twenty years, he's taken the time and trouble to find out more about England than most of us English know. Which could be why some of us don't like him. He shows us ourselves, warts and all. He's Paul Theroux without the crankiness and if you want to know what England and its people are really like, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Writer's Goodbye To England
Review: Bill Bryson is one of the top travel writers in the business and an American expatriate living in England. After twenty years of living there, he was moving back to the States. Notes From A Small Island details his final trip around the country before he moved away. The book is part travelogue and part memoir as Mr. Bryson takes us along on his present journey as well as looking back to his initial arrival in England and other past adventures. Mr. Bryson employs a sharp wit and self-deprecating humor that makes the book quite enjoyable. Amid the humor and light heartedness, there is a sense of melancholy. Mr. Bryson had called England home for twenty years and you can sense the mixed emotions he has about leaving. This adds a personal touch to the book that makes you feel like a welcomed guest on his trip.
Rating:
Summary: Moans from a psuedo Brit...
Review: ...would be a more fitting title for this book. First of all, as a Brit, I really must apologise to American people for Bryson! When British people go on holiday some of them have a reputation for moaning about everything and just being bloody boring old whiners, and it looks as though Bryson has gone native! They always say that converts are the worst. Anyway, I have had this book for a couple of years but I have never been able to get through it. When I first started to read it I thought it was very funny and very observant. There are some very witty bits I have to admit! But with time I am becoming more and more disillusionsed with Bryson and from reading some of the reviews here I am beginning to see why. "Notes..." has its place on my desk at work and I occasionally delve into it, but it isn't going to be long before I launch it into the bin, I feel. What's wrong with it? Well, as it goes on it gets more and more boring and repetitive and it feels as though Bryson has run out of ideas, but on and on it goes. There are times too, when you feel as though he is just saying "Look how funny I am! Aren't I the funny one?". Well, er yes and no! This is just self indulgence. Brysom thinks that we would all be interested in the converstions he has with his wife when he is on the toilet or what he had to eat and how much he had to pay for it. ZZZ I picked the book up today and came across one of Bryson's observations about a train-spotter he called "The Severn Bore". Doesn't Bryson realise that HE is the bore? Also I have to agree with Lisa from Australia. You points about him being "mean" are perfectly justified. he never stop criticising people, making sarcastic remarks and just, basically, being an unpleasant old wind-bag. Now, if your edition, like mine, has a PICTURE of Bryson you will see that this scruffy, bespectacled, bearded, ugly, dirty-shoe wearing twit shouldn't say ANYTHING about ANYBODY! He looks like the sort of eccentric, scruffy, university philosophy lecturer type - you know the sort! So, Bryson, before you make one of your acrid observations about someone again, look in the mirror you pompous, self rightous twit!
Rating: 
Summary: An English Hero
Review: Bryson is almost hero-worshipped here in the UK. An American who likes us! Who points out who we are and why we shouldn't change! Or something. I personally do not think this is his best work. Bryson seems intent on visiting British cities he hates, which can make for a depressing read. It's perhaps not as hilarious as many people think, the selling point for me was the trivia and coincidences Bryson finds in the UK. His political comments are also a little odd. While Bryson hates Thatcherism, consumerism and lack of conservation, he failed (along with the rest of his journalist colleagues) to support the newspaper printers strikes of the 80's.What amuses me about Bryson is how warm he can seem, someone you want to be friends with, and then a blistering display of anger will spew from his bearded pen. While unpleasant, Bryson's rants are usually the funniest part of the book. Like a variety of travel writers, Bryson (rather depressingly) seems to enjoy making fun of fat people. I suppose they are easy targets to describe, with the huge amount of synonyms available for the word fat. For me the book was enjoyable but did not make me recognise my country as much as I had hoped. He didn't go to Sheffield either, which annoyed me. Anyway, if you want to read Bryson I would personally recommend A Walk in the Woods or Neither Here Nor There: more funny and more dramatic.
Rating:
Summary: needs variety, old chap
Review: Ah, Bryson. He's as good as anyone at coming up with humourous metaphors, but this time he wrote a dull book. When I reached the end at long last, I realized that I could easily have skipped the middle. Bryson's travel cycle goes: "I (took the train/walked) to a (charming old/sterile modern) town. I was (delighted by the quaint old unprofitable stuff/disgusted by the new, economically viable stuff) around me. I went searching for a meal and ran into a weirdo. The meal was (lousy and overpriced/surprisingly good but overpriced). I went to a historical/cultural attraction that was deserted except for ways to collect my money. I found a hotel, ate some more and slept. It rained some. Overall, Blotchley-on-Bracegirdle (met my expectations of gemutlicheit/bored me to tears)." There you go. While Bryson's sometimes funny as he repeats this cycle endlessly with minor variations, he's not at his best here. A so-so value.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but slightly disappointing.
Review: This book was a good read, and captured a lot of the feel of the Great Britain. I enjoyed a lot of the comments made and Bryson was never dull. You get a good feel of what it is like there, and even though I've spent several weeks driving and navigating around the place, it was until I read this book that I really found out why those things are called pelican crossings. I guess the small problem that I have with this book is the same that I have with any travel book. It is hard to balance between "seeing the sites" and getting to know the people, and so I thought that he misrepresented some of the touristy type places. For example, he spent a good many words on the town of Monmouth in Wales, but glossed over Tintern Abbey near there with one snide remark about Wordsworth. Monmouth is a fine town, but not that exciting, whereas Tintern Abbey is the type of place that I fly across an ocean to see. I realize that part of this may be colored (correct spelling for us 'mericans) by my interests, but in this case a reader of this book may miss an interesting site if this book is used as a travel reference.
Rating:
Summary: Humorous book that's worth a read...
Review: Humorous book about England written by an American who has lived there for over 20 years. The book has interesting revelations on a culture which is and is not similar to our own. Very well written and full of laughs. However, it became boring about half way through the book and I put it down (which is ok because the book is just a series of stories woven together). This is the type of book that you don't have to read all the way through -- you can read a few pages, put it down, and pick it upa year later.
Rating:
Summary: A Loving Look through Squinted Eyes
Review: Of all Bill Bryson's travel books, this is the most affectionate, and Bryson makes me laugh out loud. Especially for Americans who love the UK, Bryson's walking/training/bussing tour of Scotland, Wales and England will be a treat. Having lived in England for most of two decades, Bryson took one last seven-week tour of his adopted home before moving back to the U.S. His resulting book is both a loving and realistic look at the people and places of the UK and a revealing self-portrait. This is one for my very narrow shelf of "read-agains," as I want to relive that point where I couldn't read any further without just putting the book down and laughing myself weak.
Rating:
Summary: Another hilarious Bryson tour
Review: Travel writer Bryson keep a firm tongue in cheek as he makes the rounds of his adopted country before returning to the United States with his family. Anyone who has spent time in Britain will chortle with wicked delight at his experiences.
|
