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| Notes from a Small Island | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $0.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (274 reviews)
Sales Rank: 18733
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 282
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0380727501
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.082
EAN: 9780380727506
ASIN: 0380727501
Publication Date: May 1, 1997
Release Date: May 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain-which is to say, all of it."After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson-bestsellingauthor of The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to returnto the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so it was clear that my people needed me.") But before departing, he set out ona grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile. "Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain-which is to say, all of it."After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson-bestselling author of ,i>The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to return to the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear that my people needed me.") But before departing, he set out on a grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.
Amazon.com
Reacting to an itch common to Midwesterners since there's been a Midwest from which to escape, writer Bill Bryson moved from Iowa to Britain in 1973. Working for such places as Times of London, among others, he has lived quite happily there ever since. Now Bryson has decided his native country needs him--but first, he's going on a roundabout jaunt on the island he loves. Britain fascinates Americans: it's familiar, yet alien; the same in some ways, yet so different. Bryson does an excellent job of showing his adopted home to a Yank audience, but you never get the feeling that Bryson is too much of an outsider to know the true nature of the country. Notes from a Small Island strikes a nice balance: the writing is American-silly with a British range of vocabulary. Bryson's marvelous ear is also in evidence: "... I noted the names of the little villages we passed through--Pinhead, West Stuttering, Bakelite, Ham Hocks, Sheepshanks ..." If you're an Anglophile, you'll devour Notes from a Small Island.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 269 more reviews...
 Couldn't finish this one.... July 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read five of Bryson's books so far, but this one has put the nail in the coffin for me-there will be no more Bryson books for a while. I'm about half way through it but am finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate Bryson's mean-spirited remarks about people he's never met. Bryson's comment that an overweight teenager was a, "greedy, fat, pig" wasn't funny at all. It was just mean, plain and simple...and this coming from an author who needs to take a look at himself in the mirror. In the last Bryson book I read, his wife comments that all he does is, "b**ch, b**ch, b**ch. I agree with her. I find this book to be repeatedly filled with whining, and mean-spirited comments about people Bryson has never met and places he doesn't spend enough time in to know anything about. If you want to read good Bryson books try, "A Walk in The Woods" or "A Short History of Nearly Everything". This one will will be going out, half-finished, with our summer tag sale items.
 notes about small complaints... June 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bill Bryson travels his adopted homeland of Great Britain and his observations about the people and places take the spotlight in this travel diary.
This is classic Bryson. Lots of acute observations, some dry humor along the way, and many adventures. While I enjoy Bryson, his writing is not for people who have not been to the place he is talking about. I enjoyed his other book "Neither Here, nor There" much more as I had been to Europe and the places he had been to in that book and therefore found his observations much more amusing than in this book.
I actually put this book down. It was entertaining for sure, but I just got sick of hearing about England after awhile. I will of course read Bryson again, but this one was just not a fave.
three Stars.
 I wet myself reading this one March 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ok, may that was a little lie, but "Notes from a Small Island" was that good. I laughed out loud so many times I cried. He hits the countries mannerisms spot on. Having lived in the UK for many years I enjoyed all of his rants and raves. Sure, some of them may have been a little preachy or exagerated, but the point was to show the differences and he came through with flying colors (or should I say colours). His witty observations remind me of things we all think but never remember to put to pen. Instead, he sees it and writes about it and then delivers it in a poignant, yet loving way.
Most Brits that I know love his works and this book is no exception. In fact, a Brit recommended him to me as an example of a great writer writing about the UK.
Good for you Bill.
Sam Hendricks, author of "Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football" and "Fantasy Football Almanac". Coming in May 2008-"Fantasy Football Almanac 2008"
 A long way from his best work February 9, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
After a lengthy residence in England, journalist Bill Bryson and his family had reached the decision to move back to their native USA. Before leaving, Bryson pulled out all the stops and embarked on a freewheeling 7 week whirlwind tour of England, Wales and Scotland. Shank's pony, bus, train, and the occasional rented car were his only modes of transportation. Of course, as one would expect, the journal from that trip formed the core of a book about the English people, their habits and customs, their towns, their buildings, their history, and the countryside and its landscapes.
Fresh from a reading of Bryson's brilliant Appalachian travelogue, "A Walk in the Woods", I was psyched and I had enormously high expectations for "Notes From a Small Island". But, in the words of the Britons whom he had lived amongst for almost 20 years, "it were a bloomin' disappointment wot didn't come up to snuff!"
Oh, to be sure, there were moments of unutterably funny comic brilliance! But I found that on far too many occasions, Bryson used the book as a platform to preach and whine, over and over again, about the loss of British architectural heritage to the ravages of much more boring 20th century buildings and lack luster store fronts. And, please don't misunderstand me ... I couldn't agree more! To tear down some of these beautiful structures that are hundreds of years old or to raze a hedgerow for no other purpose than to erect a mall filled with a Boots, a Marks & Spencer and a MacDonalds is an unforgivable travesty. But, bless me, Bryson seemed to go on and on ... and on again! And, truth be told, if I had to listen to one more nearly endless string of cutesy British village and town names, I swore I was going to throw up and give him a real life version of the plastic vomit he was so oddly intent on purchasing as he traveled through Inverness.
In my review of "A Walk in the Woods", I commented that Bryson's unmatched humour took every possible form imaginable but, in "Notes From a Small Island", a far larger percentage of the time was spent trying to generate laughs with Don Rickles' style of humour that always seemed to come at someone else's expense. Somehow, it all got tiresome and simply stopped being funny.
That Bryson has an eye for history, geography, and the quirky bits of local social life that can make a book like this so interesting is beyond doubt. Likewise, there is no question that he has a flair for comic delivery of his material. But "Notes From a Small Island" was a long way below the standard that I enjoyed in "A Walk in the Woods".
Paul Weiss
Hysterical January 22, 2008
A witty insight into the nation that gave us Harry Potter, P.G. Wodehouse and Shakespeare - and you can see traces of all three genres in Bryson's writing. Two thumbs up for both the entertainment and the poignant insights it gives into contemporary British life.
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