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Loading... Notes from a Small Island (1995)by Bill Bryson
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» 32 more Folio Society (278) United Kingdom (4) Books Read in 2009 (12) Books Read in 2020 (520) Favourite Books (1,121) Unread books (274) Books Read in 2015 (958) Books Read in 2016 (3,076) My favourite books (11) Books Read in 2018 (2,925) Comfort Reads (187) Books Set on Islands (50) Books I've read (36) Funny Books (19) BBC Big Read (95) Books Read in 2012 (135) Books read in 2015 (24) Alphabetical Books (114) Five star books (1,307) Biggest Disappointments (482) No current Talk conversations about this book. If you're from the UK or have a particular interest in their ways, the book to me was so so and I didn't finish. Fresh and jarring observations from the young Bryson. Good travelogue. A bit redundant, but I enjoyed it. I always enjoy Bryson, and I was looking forward to this book as I'm a huge anglophile. The book was decent enough, but I wish he'd spent more time talking about the history rather than a lot of the mundanities of travel. And I wish he'd gone to slightly more interesting places. A lot of the towns he was in were, well, kind of boring. That may have been part of the point of the memoir, but still. The book did have its share of LOL moments, of course. Maybe it's because I've worked for 25 years in customer service, but listening to some middle-class dude complain about trivialities is not my idea of entertainment, it's work. In the main, the book was okay. There were some hilarious bits, however, much of the humor was in the form of grousing, which is not to my taste. I was thinking it was going to be a 3-star book as some bits dragged, but then . . . at page 274, so close to the end, I hit this: In the end, fractious and impatient, I went into a crowded McDonald's, waited ages in a long, shuffling line, which made me even more fractious and impatient, and finally ordered a cup of coffee and an Egg McMuffin. "Do you want an apple turnover with that?"asked the young man who served me. I looked at him for a moment. "I'm sorry," I said, "do I appear to be brain-damaged?" "Pardon?" "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't ask for an apple turnover, did I?" "Uh . . . no" "So do I look as if I have some mental condition that would render me unable to ask for an apple turnover if I wanted one?" "No, it's just that we're told to ask everyone, like." "What, you think everyone in Edinburgh is brain-damaged?" "We're just told to ask everyone, like." "Well, I don't want an apple turnover, which is why I didn't ask for one. Is there anything else you'd like to know if I don't want?" "We're just told to ask everyone." "Do you remember what I do want?" He looked in confusion at his cash register "Uh, an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee." "Do you think I might have it this morning or shall we talk some more?" "Oh, uh, right, I'll just get it" "Thank you." Well, honestly. That's just not funny. Subjecting an employee to shaming sarcasm because you're having a crappy day isn't my idea of humor. It's not even my idea of being a basically acceptable human being. I read a bit further on to see if the author ever expressed any sort of awareness that the scene above describes an overbearing bully belittling a employee in the middle of a rush for executing their job as required by their employer. He didn't. There were some good laughs in the book, but nothing that could make up for my disgust at this. In particular given that it was preceded by another bit where he totally blows up on some poor hotel clerk, this seems likely to be pattern behavior. I gave the hotel scene a pass since he owned some chagrin for that one. But this, this is completely unacceptable behavior. If you aren't bothered by this, you are part of the problem. I DNFed shortly after this scene even thought there were only 37 pages left. I'm so disgusted by what I just read that I feel faintly queasy. no reviews | add a review
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After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such best sellers as The Mother Tongue and Made in America, decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland, and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, zebra crossings, and place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells. With wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure. The result is a social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain. No library descriptions found.
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)942.082 — History and Geography Europe England and Wales England 1837- Edward VII 1901-10LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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