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This is the discussion thread for the Spring 2016 Group Read Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

This is currently in the amazon kindle store for $1.99 for those that may be interested...

I really thought I would have enjoyed this book more. Maybe it was just dated as I've enjoyed his other books. I liked the beginning and the end, but by chapter 12 it was becoming tedious.
I did spend the rest of the day trying to get "Ferry Cross the Mersey" out of my brain.

Putting my review in spoilers because I used kind of a bad word. Couldn't help it because I really didn't enjoy it.

(view spoiler)[I kept putting this one down and moving to another book. Reason? Bill Bryson is a cynical asshole. He is rude to locals, and seems completely miserable the vast majority of time. He is the reason why so many folks in other countries think Americans are egotistical, judgmental pricks. (hide spoiler)]

Daphne wrote: "Putting my review in spoilers because I used kind of a bad word. Couldn't help it because I really didn't enjoy it.

[spoilers removed]"

Daphne....you are too funny. I enjoyed your review. Your comment made me laugh out loud, which didn't happen while reading this book.

This was between 2 and 3 stars for me. I ultimately gave this 3 stars, but it wasn't my favorite. This author seems to be a solid 3 stars for me. I've read other books by him, and they hover in that area. It felt like a slide show of someone's vacation.

I rated this two stars. It seemed like a rehash of his A Walk in the Woods until I checked publication dates. It turns out this was the warm up and he definitely did it better the second time. I was displeased by his attitude toward the people he met. Weston( I think?) was portrayed as a horrible resort town because he couldn't find a room/good food during the off season. He was lucky there was anyone there at all. I did get the impression he likes cathedrals or maybe big architecture. Those were places he rarely got nasty about. His randomness in itinerary dismayed me. I need a plan and could never travel like that. "Oh, I was going to city A but there's the train for city B ready to leave - think I'll get on board!" If I ever get to England though, I think I will seek out Durham and see for myself what he loved about it.

I enjoyed the book as much as I have his others. I enjoyed him mentioning the stores in Bowness that all were selling Peter Rabbit stuff - I have one of those sets which was mailed to me by my sister-in-law during the years she lived in England. I would love to take time and just meander around the country (in this case, my country, or maybe just Texas). Randomly choosing where to go each day, without a schedule.

4 stars only because the book was twice as long as my attention span.

Ava Catherine

Although there are occasional bits of humor and insight (“a young man with more on his mind than in it��; “carpet with the sort of pattern you get when you rub your eyes too hard,�� and a droll anecdote of him asking for directions when he forgot he was wearing underwear on his head), the humor becomes thin as the book progresses, and his repetitious whining becomes really annoying.
(view spoiler)[For someone who claims to be an Anglophile, he certainly spends much of his time degrading the British people and country. I wonder if he is just pessimistic by nature because he does demean Americans, too.
Just when I thought I couldn't stand another minute of the book there was a flash of insight. When he finds the virtually complete Roman mosaic in the Cotswolds and is filled with gratitude, wonder, and admiration. He is sincerely disappointed months later when he discovers that it is not Roman, but a Victorian replica but deflects with humor.
I am disappointed with this book. I think Bryson is rude and crude. He is disrespectful to other tourists, to those in the service industry, to females, to fat people, and to those of other cultures. He is barging around like a bull in a china shop and thinks everything he does is funny. If things don't go his way, he bullies people into submission, which I do not find amusing.
The book was a never ending litany of places he visited and modes of transportation. It was boring. If the book is truly a travel book, it should have a map. I kept wanting to flip to a map and find where he was on his journey; this was a huge oversight. I gave the book 2 stars because I usually zip though a book, but it took me forever to get through this one. It was a chore. (hide spoiler)]

i just started this one the other day, first Bill Bryson book i've read, but at 20% pretty underwhelmed - like Daphne said, i find his behavior to be ehh...the one commentary about when he was eating dinner in the restaurant and another family dared to get the dessert options before him was just tacky

He has a warped sense of humor.

see i don't find that humourous in the slightly - i find it cruel and degrading - if any one of us were to do something like that and post it openly, we would likely be taken to task for being cruel (case in point, several years ago, i made a comment about getting change back from a girl scout when i bought cookies - they were $4.50 and she used a calculator to figure out how much change to give me from $10)...i was taken to task by many people for being cruel; that is how i intepreate his commentary

i actually decided to not continue it - i'm going to switch to one of the other group reads

I don't blame you, Dee. I almost changed books, but I was too far into the book to switch, and I kept hoping it would get better. It just made be angry because he was such an a**. I felt like I was wasting my time with him.

yeah...there are so many better travel writers out there and yet he is the popular one... :(

Dee wrote: "yeah...there are so many better travel writers out there and yet he is the popular one... :("

That's how I feel about Erik Larson and all of his fake and imaginary history. There are so many better history writers that actually use facts and actual events to tell stories. He is just a liar that is content to make up 80% of the things in his book and label them history, and the general public eats it up.

I've never read Erik Larson but he seems to pick topics where extrapolation to develop history is required

Dee wrote: "I've never read Erik Larson but he seems to pick topics where extrapolation to develop history is required"

Then it's historical fiction, and shouldn't be in the nonfiction sections. :)

not necessarily - if there is little know about a topic, and he constructs is based on what limited resources there are, then it could be justified as being non-fiction, but like i said, i've never read any of his stuff to be able to judge - although his new one about the Lusitania is on my TBR

Dee wrote: "not necessarily - if there is little know about a topic, and he constructs is based on what limited resources there are, then it could be justified as being non-fiction, but like i said, i've never..."

We'll have to agree to disagree. I'm a big fan of being able to pick up a nonfiction book and feel pretty confident that what I'm reading is true. One can absolutely not do that with Larson because he makes no distinctions between reality and his imagination. Unless one is very versed and well read about the subjects of all of his books, then the reader will never be able to tell what is actual fact and what is conjecture on his part. I see that as a huge disservice to readers, and an insult to actual historians and real nonfiction authors.

so how do you actually know he is weaving fiction and non-fiction? is there any chance of plausibility in what he writes? i mean i guess i have a hard time seeing how he could be so far off course when his books have won many non-fiction awards (Edgar Award for non-fiction crime writing; Louis J Batton award from the American meteorological society etc)

This book was an uphill battle for me. I confess that it was probably too soon after reading A Walk in the Woods to attempt to read another Bryson book and judge it fairly. Having said that, proceed with caution because I am going to go on an unapologetic rant about both books.

(view spoiler)[ Bill Bryson’s attitude toward everyone he meets who doesn’t share his point of view (particularly women) drives me crazy. I get sarcasm. I love snarky humor. I do not find it amusing to make fun of people. I still get really irritated when I think about A Walk in the Woods. Not many books make me angry. This one did. Well, it still does. It’s been four months since I read it and I still cannot believe how much whining was crammed into it. He was ill prepared, didn’t appreciate nature or the trail, and was a big roaring jerk to those he met along the way. And no matter how many day trips he took to pad out that book, it does not mean he walked the entire trail. Bah!

Ok, that being said, I hate to judge an author by one book. A Walk in the Woods was my first Bryson read and I wanted to be fair. Maybe I was being a grouchy, nature loving, through hiker. A lot of people seem to love Bryson, so, perhaps I was being too harsh and judgmental. Unlike the author, I dislike being this way and I decided to give him another shot. I tried to have an open mind while reading Notes from a Small Island. While I did not hate it as much as A Walk in the Woods, I certainly did not enjoy it. Bryson still comes across as a jerk to me. I just don’t understand all the negativity. I get the sense that any town the author moves away from or leaves is a much happier place afterward. They might even call for a national holiday upon his departure. At the least, I feel a bottle of good wine is in order. How can Bryson travel to so many wonderful places and consistently come across as a know-it-all, holier-than-thou curmudgeon? I really don’t get it.

I can’t see myself voluntarily reaching for another of Bryson’s books. It’s such a shame because I’m drawn to the titles of his books every time they pop up. I really do want to love them. It irritates me to no end that this man has made his fortune by traveling to amazing places all over the world and meeting people he not only could care less about but seems to look down on and dislike greatly. He doesn’t even care about them enough to write down their names. Instead, he makes up horrible little names that he seems to think are hilarious when, in reality, they are just insulting.

I would like to end this rant by saying that I feel travel is wasted on Bryson. I am giving Notes from a Small Island two very yucky, rusty stars and a virtual kick to the author’s pompous backside. (hide spoiler)]

Since hundreds of Nashville buildings are being torn down and replaced with soulless ticky-tacky, my favorite line from Notes from a Small Island is " “You know, we’ve been putting up handsome buildings since 1264; let’s have an ugly one for a change.�� "

And I loved: “she spent her last day at home scrubbing it from top to bottom until it shone, even though she knew it was going to be torn down the next day. She just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it dirty.�� (Who knew that my mother had visited England?)

And the (apparently-universal) “It’s an odd thing about mothers…as soon as you leave home they merrily throw away everything you cherished through childhood.�� (my Mom, again)

Personally, it will take me a while to recover from my disappointment that according to Bryson's accounts, I’ll never be able to visit Inspector Morse’s Oxford, Hercule Poirot’s seaside, or Aunt Dimity’s Cotswolds. It was marginally reassuring that the Mersey Ferry serenades itself and that 1950-60’s architects at least had a shining vision despite the fact that it didn’t translate from architectural plans to concrete.

I enjoyed Bryson’s writing style for several chapters, then, as several Seasonal Readers mentioned, the book became tedious, snarky, whiny and self-indulgent. I was relieved when it was finally over.

A series of anecdotes and tales of his travels through Great Britain prior to moving back to the US, Notes From a Small Island would have made an amusing essay but got tiresome as a novel. I enjoyed A Walk in the Woods more, but that was an audiobook and required less effort on my part. I found myself falling asleep to Notes all too often; nothing in the stories was compelling enough to prevent that. It wasn't a terrible book, but I found the tone a little too "snarky, whiny, and self-indulgent", as Jonquil mentioned above.

Just finished this, and I have to say I was relieved to see some of the other reviews on here. I expected a lot more from Bill Bryson (I haven't personally read anything else he's written but I know my parents have and found it hysterical) and I was definitely let down by this book.

It had a couple cute moments, I think I laughed out loud something like three times. But the rest of it was just long and boring. And DEFINITELY made me never want to go off the beaten path in Britain!

I also found him rather rude and that was off-putting at times. The story about him yelling at a McDonald's worker because she's required to ask if he wants additional items, people like that are just the worst.

Anyway, I finished it but just barely.

I'm sorry to say it, but this book is awful.

Perhaps I was naive in expecting amusing anecdotes about familiar English landmarks such as the Tower of London or Stonehenge. Instead, I got scene after scene of egocentric and judgmental whining. I have a feeling that the people of England are better off now that Bill Bryson has decided to move back to America.

Perhaps its time to reserve our sympathies for the places there that he is going to write about next.

This was a difficult book for me to rate. There were 3 or 4 chapters that I loved and would have given them 5 stars. However, most of the chapters I really didn't like because of the author's attitude. In the end, I gave it 2 stars. I agree with several of the other readers, that the author's attitude came off as judgmental and whiny. I won't be reading more of his books.

I quite enjoyed Bill Bryson’s book I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away, so I opted for this one for the group reads. Maybe my appreciation for his writing style has worn thin after just the one book. I didn’t care for this one so much. There were some smile-worthy anecdotes, witty quips, and a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, usually at his own expense, but overall his humor was adolescent and needlessly crude in places. Appreciated by his many fans, to be sure, but just not my cup of tea. He seemed to take relish in his inexplicably rude behavior at times and go on and on about fairly uninteresting experiences. I was disappointed. Thanks to the audiobook, it just kept plugging away and eventually came to an end.

I like Bill Bryson, I love travel writing, and I love England but this book is definitely underwhelming and sometimes tedious. While Bryson is at times his funny, dry, sarcastic self, there are times in this book where he crosses the line over to tacky, judgemental, and overly crass. It's just not my favorite example of his writing.

2.5 stars, I'm glad there are others here who agree with me, I didn't particularly enjoy reading this. It's the first book by Bill Bryson that I have read although I have actually bought A Walk in the Woods for people because I had heard Bryson was funny. He is funny and some of his commentary was clever (more on his mind than in it). Some parts of this tour around England were engaging. He has some interesting insights (England would be good at communism). But in sum too much of this book was about Bryson and what he cares about and not enough about the places he was visiting. And seriously his attitude (the McDonald's scene in particular) was unpleasantly negative.

I have read a number of Bill Bryson's books and enjoyed them, but this one almost defeated me. I think he loves parts of the British Isles, but he is just trying too hard to be witty and it doesn't always work.

I did enjoy his book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid about his childhood in Des Moines, IA. Of course, I could relate to that, as I know many of the places he writes about.

OK, I guess I read a different book than everyone else posting here. Or, as usual, I don't agree with many folks here about books!

First may be expectations - I don't read Bill Bryson looking for a travel guide (any more than I read A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail looking for a book on how to identify trees and birds.) If I want a travel guide, I'll read Rick Steves or Lonely Planet. He's a humor writer, not a guidebook writer. So, I was not expecting him to give me a guide of each attraction in the places he went.

Secondly, I really didn't find him as obnoxious as many of you did. When he got to places where he couldn't find stuff open, he didn't say "how can these people dare not to be open for me?" He described what happened to him, but this isn't the same as some sort of entitlement attitude. Really, I have frequently run into snags in travels - can't find a restaurant with better than mediocre food, etc. And when I describe my experiences, I don't say, "oh it was all rainbows and flowers" - I'll get sarcastic and snarky about lousy travel experiences, or just lousy experiences right here in my own town.

I find him amusing - and I really didn't see this horrible negative attitude that many of you saw. I can't imagine how tedious it would be to read a book that went "Oh, I went to _______. Everyone and everything was lovely. Then on to ________ - and everything and everyone was lovely." I'd last about 2 pages.

When he described some of the crappy experiences, I just thought, "oh, yeah, that was like that time........." And, most of what he was critical about was the bad urban renewal stuff from the 60s - maybe your opinion differs, but I don't see that as horrible and crass and judgmental. And, on balance, he was a lot more laudatory than he was critical.

So, like I said, maybe somehow I just got a magical alternate universe version of the book - or maybe I just have a different sense of humor!

Sandy wrote: "OK, I guess I read a different book than everyone else posting here. Or, as usual, I don't agree with many folks here about books!

First may be expectations - I don't read Bill Bryson looking for ..."

I couldn't agree more, Sandy. Thank you for writing my comments for me! I actually gave the book 5*.

ETA: The average rating is 3.91 with over 61,000 ratings, so a lot of people DID like it. Just not in this group, I guess.

would be interesting to see a rating comparsion, those who have read BB before vs. not; and how that deviates in their ratings

i guess for me (and I DNF'd it) that travel writers like J. Maarten Troost or Tony Hawks have given me a very high standard - and BB just didn't live up to it - i'm used to crude humor, its just not my thing and that's how i saw his writing style - shock value for shock sake

Dee wrote: "i guess for me (and I DNF'd it) that travel writers like J. Maarten Troost or Tony Hawks have given me a very high standard - and BB just didn't live up to it - i'm used..."

wow, I just didn't see all this "crude humor" you apparently saw. Nor did I see "shock value" - and, funny that you mention J. Maarten Troost, because I find them very similar.

maybe BB is better listened to than read - i listened to JMT

I wasn't going to write anything until I finished the book but I want to let Sandy know she is not alone. I am also enjoying the book a lot! I have been to England a few times so I recognize a lot of the places he has talked about. This book goes way beyond a travel guide as Bryson lived in England for 20 years so he knows a different kind of England than most American tourists ever see. I don't find him particularly rude or crude...he is saying what he thinks and I would much prefer an honest opinion rather than sugar coating observations. I think he is very complimentary toward the British in general. I totally got it when he was talking about the Underground and the weird freaky feeling knowing you are way below the surface of the earth. That was especially brought home to me when I was on a subterranean train one evening loaded with people getting off work at 6 pm and the train just stopped and all I could see out the window was dark. That memory still makes my stomach a little queasy thinking about it. It also gave me chills when he talked about walking in the park and a royal car was behind him and he saw Princess Diana driving. A few years later she would be dead in a terrible car accudent.
I do think that Sandy and I have a different sense of humor. Personally I grew up in a family of satirist and with lots of sarcasm and my friends, co workers and my guy all possess similar senses of humor so maybe that is why I get this book. I am a people watcher too and have musings like Bryson does. I really enjoy travel writing but the travel guide style gets boring to me.
Anyway thanks Sandy for posting because I was wondering if I was the only person who actually liked this book! Sometimes I think I am probably not a true Goodreader because my reviews are mostly contrary to what most people write and I wonder what am I missing akways being in opposition to so many people!

Thanks for your alternate perspective Sandy. It is interesting how differently people can see the same book.

I love snark and sarcasm, but that isn't how Bryson came across to me. Sadly, I saw his attitude as superior, rude and obnoxious.

I've also just realized that I've forgotten to claim the points for this task so I'm off to post :0)

Ceelee wrote: "Sometimes I think I am probably not a true Goodreader because my reviews are mostly contrary to what most people write and I wonder what am I missing always being in opposition to so many people! "

On the contrary, Ceelee! I think that makes you a perfect Goodreader. GR would be mighty boring if everyone had the same opinions on books, and followed the herd. Often it's the different opinions that are the really interesting ones.

Trish wrote: " Often it's the different opinions that are the really interesting ones.
..."

We've found this in my real life library book group as well. If everyone likes the book, but is not passionate about something in particular, there's not that much discussion - once everyone says "yeah, I liked it fine," the discussion is hard to stimulate. But, when some people really like it and some people really hate it, things get much more interesting!

Sandy wrote: "We've found this in my real life library book group as well. If everyone likes the book, but is not passionate about something in particular, there's not that much discussion - once everyone says "yeah, I liked it fine," the discussion is hard to stimulate. But, when some people really like it and some people really hate it, things get much more interesting!"

We had that in our book club with Go Set a Watchman. Probably the best discussion we've had.

The humor just felt dated to me, so often. I lived in England for a couple of years in the early 90s, and reading this, I thought he must be describing the years before I got there, so it surprised me that the copyright was for after I'd left. I think humor writing has evolved enough in the past 20 years that this is stale.

I loved a couple of observations - he says curling up in his mother-in-law's house always feels like the most comfortable sleep, and that's totally my experience, even though my mattress at my mother-in-law's house (in Dublin) is by any standards subpar. I liked his appreciation for architecture, and landscaped landscapes.

But the constant 'ha ha your place names are so dumb' and highly judgmental observations about other people put me off a lot.

I’m definitely on Sandy’s side of this discussion! This is the first Bill Bryson book I’ve read, although I’ve had several on the TBR list for a while including this one, and I wonder that helped: I came to it without any real preconceptions, as I didn’t have anything to compare it to. In fact, about my only expectation was that it wouldn’t be a ‘travel book�� in the sense of Lonely Planet et al �� in which I wasn’t disappointed.

As it turned out, I really enjoyed it and found a surprising amount of it to be laugh-out loud funny (including the description of the humble multi-story car park!), especially in the first two-thirds of the book. I wonder if this is because he has a more ‘British�� sense of observational humour, having lived over here for so long, or whether I just have the same kind of slightly cynical outlook that he does. (For the record, I also like Jon Ronson, whose style is somewhat similar). And he had a good line in one-liners, like “It is an interesting experience to become acquainted with a country through the eyes of the insane, and, if I may say so, a particularly useful grounding for life in Britain�� and “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you would think that if one nation ought by now to have mastered the science of drainage, Britain would be it��.

Living in the UK I can visualise a lot of the places, situations and types of people, which may also have added to my positive view on the book. I’m also a fan of ‘random acts of tourism��, as you can come across some amazing gems that way, although I would probably have been one of those who told him “gosh, you’re brave�� when he proposed touring Britain on public transport.

I agree that he can be exceedingly and unnecessarily rude at times (I thought the hotelier in Weston had exactly the right response �� to be so polite the following day that Bryson was ashamed of how he’d behaved), and it is a bit dated in places (but then, it was first published in 1995, so I guess it would be), which is why I only gave it 4 stars, instead of 5. But overall I really enjoyed it, and I’ll almost certainly read more of his books. First on the list is his biography of Shakespeare, in this 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death.

Melanie wrote: "But the constant 'ha ha your place names are so dumb' and highly judgmental observations about other people put me off a lot. "

I hadn’t even thought of the place names bits like that! I saw the real ones more as “wow, your place names are totally unique��, while I chuckled at the points where he was obviously making names up. It’s really weird how this book has polarised opinions.

Trish wrote: "I hadn’t even thought of the place names bits like that! I saw the real ones more as “wow, your place names are totally unique��, while I chuckled at the points where he was obviously making names up. It’s really weird how this book has polarised opinions. "

At first I found the place-name riffs amusing, but then with the people-judgment stuff it twisted for me towards unkind humor.

I do agree that when he's charmed - like with the village full of the very rich and the insane all happily coexisting, or the early recap of complex road directions to save 1 minute on a 75 minute drive - his sense of whimsey and delight work very well.

Trish...that occurred to me too. I watch a lot of British comedies and Bryson's narrative reminds me a lot of that type of humor.

I thought this book was very readable and mostly interesting. Some of it lagged when the places and anecdotes were boring, but overall I enjoyed it.

I liked his "curmudgeonly" attitude toward the various people and towns (is that a word?) When he wrote about his arrogant and abusive interactions with others, I read it more as dramatic license and imagination than reality. So I found those moments more funny than offensive. But maybe they actually did happen, and he really is a jerk.

My husband, who is a Bryson fan, warned me this is not his best work. As I read through, I imagined Notes was written by either Statler or Waldorf (the old guys on the Muppets) while they were still middle aged, had not found their jeering soul mate, nor had they hit their full sarcastic stride. I liked Bryson's dry British-ish wit, but it turned me off a bit when he snapped at people. I also alternately imagined the book being read by Stephen Fry, any of the boys from Top Gear (especially during the driving bits), or Patrick Stewart. That made the experience more enjoyable to say the least.

I wish he chose a travel book or a love letter to the UK, because I feel like he didn't really get either. I'm looking forward to reading one of his other books, but I wouldn't recommend this one if someone hadn't read Bryson before.

I ended up giving this one 3 stars :)

I really liked all of the place name fun poking. My favorites were 'the rail crossing at Great Shagging' and 'Sphincter Passage' (hmmm not sure what that says about me!). I can see how that might get old for some since it was dragged out. His continuous price ranting was what wore me out especially since I don't know much about European currency in 1995 and couldn't relate to how 'horrifying' £2 for a guidebook catalog was.

Some of my other favorite parts were the 'ceremonial pee' in the car park, describing himself in his waterproof clothing as a 'large blue condom', and 'women are great with vomit' (very true in my household growing up! my dad would start gagging if he was the finder/picker-uper of cat throw-up).

I was also not crazy about some of his meanness (comments on Asperger's and overweight people for instance). The rude specific conversations he recounted didn't bother me at all since I took them as vast embellishments or in his head (like when you're telling a story and you include your not-so-nice thoughts that you'd never actually say to the person).

I remember reading this shortly after it first came, and enjoying it. 20 years later it has both dated and remains valid. As a travel memoir, though, there are many that are infinitely better, as this feels very self-indulgent and narrow focus - with his affection for the England of the 50s that he imagines rather than the England of the time, growing and developing. The fact that he loved Port Sunlight, for instance, is emblematic of his attitude.
This read though: OK on the whole.

I liked this book (3 stars), I thought it was entertaining and funny, while not exactly mind-blowing or memorable.
My reading of Bryson is that he is actually making fun of himself more so than making fun of other people. When he complains about things he is actually doing so in a sarcastic and self-deprecating manner. This is why I like him more than most travel writers. Most travel writers are really just showing off, making themselves look good, and that drives me crazy. Bryson writes with an honesty that I find refreshing.