BS: BILL BRYSON

Subject: BILL BRYSON
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 May 01 - 12:24 AM

has anyone read any bill bryson? ive just read notes from a small island and found it very funny.im new to mudcat & this is the first thread ive posted,i hope i did it right and didnt offend anyone.someone plrase reply even if its just to tell me to get lost!

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: alison
Date: 17 May 01 - 12:35 AM

I love Bill Bryson... have read most of his books... my favourite is "Neither here nor there" where he travels around Europe, also a "walk in the big woods" (I think that's right) where he walks along ??? the appalachian Trail in the US.......

he has a great turn of phrase.......

welcome to Mudcat, we try to discuss music.. but as you can see from the other threads...... we do digress ....*grin*

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: GMT
Date: 17 May 01 - 03:52 AM

I haven't read any of his books but spent a restless afternoon on a sun lounger last holiday next to a man who giggled constantly whilst reading one.

Are they amusing then ?

Cheers Gary

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: andrewjohn
Date: 17 May 01 - 03:56 AM

I like his description of Australians.

"Australians will spend one half of the conversation
telling you the dangers of the bush are greatly exaggerated
and the other half of the conversation
describing how they were travelling home from Mudgee
late one night and a tiger snake crawled out from under
the dashboard."

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: GUEST,Louisa
Date: 17 May 01 - 04:21 AM

Hi

Yes Bill Bryson is brilliant. I like all his books, but especially Notes from A Small Island, Neither here not there and Notes from a big country. The chapter in Big Country about American guidebooks on Europe is hilarious.

Louisa

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: alison
Date: 17 May 01 - 04:28 AM

often hilarious.....

and his descriptions are usually spot on.... especially of things like French and Italian driving skills......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 May 01 - 05:40 AM

I think I have read the lot to date. One not mentioned that should be compulsory for international forums such as this is the one about the English language and its application around the world - Mother Tongue I think. Manages to make sense of the language and still be very funny in parts. Dunno how he does it somethimes.

I think my overall favourite bits are in 'notes' where he likens wandering around the subways of Milton Keynes to those little animals that pop their heads out of holes occasionaly (forgot what they are called!) and in 'A walk in the woods' when they manage to loose a female companion and then get guilty conciences. But it's all good stuff.

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: John J
Date: 17 May 01 - 07:40 AM

I've read most of his books, but not the latest one on Australia: all VERY funny and most informative! Can compare notes at the Jug this weekend. John

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Grab
Date: 17 May 01 - 08:23 AM

The bits where he's on his own are pretty good - he's actually describing stuff and what it's like. The books where he's with Stephen Katz ("Neither here nor there" and "A walk in the woods") seem to end up too much as just a "take the piss out of Stephen Katz" exercise, which gets a bit wearing after a while.

My personal favourite is "The lost continent", which I was given for Xmas by accident when I asked for Pratchett's "The last continent". :-) Very funny and slightly sad book.

Incidentally, anyone else notice he's got a real downer on all government agencies, and the Forestry Service in particular?

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: John P
Date: 17 May 01 - 08:36 AM

It looks like I'll have to read some more of his books. I read "Made in America" and spent the whole time giggling, being amazed, and being enlightened.

John

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Wavestar
Date: 17 May 01 - 09:17 AM

I had the privilege of going to high school with his son David, a sweet quiet boy who spoke in a low voice and a British accent. I didn't know anything about Bill Bryson until he spoke at my brother's graduation, and was very funny. Even then, I didn't connect him with David (who was in my home room for four years) until he mentioned his son in the speech. So I knew he was an author, and a funny, friendly man. Then I came to Britain.

I was AMAZED when I arrived and found that whole sections of stores were devoted to the books of this man I'd met so unassumingly. I've even read a couple by now, and I concur - he's funny, irreverent, intelligent, and researches his books tirelessly. I approve.

Still, I do get laughs from time to time about him. I was seated next to a man on a train to London once, who, like GMT's holidayer, laughed constantly. Eventually he put the book down, and we got to talking. I asked him about the book, and he delightedly told me all about this "little college town in New England" that Bryson lived in, and how he wrote all about it. The town was Hanover NH, where I went to high school, and very much my 'hometown.' I told the man this, and he looked at me as if I had just walked out of a storybook and was telling him about Robin Hood. It was hysterical.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: GUEST,john in hull
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:24 PM

glad other people like bill bryson,ithought it was just me that laughed out loud reading him iwill try yo read his other stuff john

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Ringer
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:35 PM

A word of warning: my wife is a linguistician (someone who studies linguistics, not just languages) and is a bit critical of the linguistics in Mother Tongue. But I read it & enjoyed it greatly. And she's read all his books and enjoyed them, too.

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 01 - 01:35 AM

Love them all, those that I've read, they jeopardised several moments of my recovery from recent surgery, and have got me more filthy looks on the tube and bus than almost any other book except Spike Milligan, whose writings had me removed from a train carriage because I laughed too much.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: JulieF
Date: 18 May 01 - 08:00 AM

I've enjoyed all the books of his that I've read so far. He has a certain turn of phrase which quite often leads to you disturbing the rest of the bus with a fit of giggles and I've added him to my list of famous author's I quite fancy having a drink with. ( See also Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin etc.)

All the best

Julie

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Burke
Date: 18 May 01 - 08:47 AM

I've only read "A Walk in the Woods" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself." Walk was Ok, but Stranger had me laughing out loud. I really like that short essay form. I'll look for some of his other books now.

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: sian, west wales
Date: 18 May 01 - 09:32 AM

I've given a few to my mother, on audio-tape. Her eyes are failing her, and she loved to read. She's CRAZY about the man!

sian

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: FrankieB
Date: 19 May 01 - 07:50 AM

I am not much of a fan of travel writing--I always sort of cringed at the whole idea of going off to somebody else's country and then coming home and taking the piss out of it for 100,000 words. But a friend recently gave me Notes from a Big Country, and I have to say I have not laughed so much over a book in a long time. As an American who has lived in Scotland for 7 years and occasionally suffers bouts of homesickness(best cure for this--for those fellow ex-pat Yanks out there: fly into San Francisco on a summer afternoon and then sit in a traffic jam on 101 in the smog and heat for three hours-- you'll never be so glad you don't live there!!) I can relate...

FrankieB

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Wavestar
Date: 19 May 01 - 12:47 PM

Oh, now, FrankieB, it's not fair curing homesickness with the worst parts of America! I get homesick for the woods and winding country roads of Vermont, which aside from the lack of sea and castles is on par with my beloved Scotland anyday.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: FrankieB
Date: 20 May 01 - 11:35 AM

Ah, but then you hit route 1 at the coast and head down past Monterey and walk out to Point Lobos to see the full weight of the Pacific battering the cliffs and the fog creeping in over the bay... and you see what California used to be and wish to God Silicon Valley had never come into existence-- but of course that is another conversation entirely... And now that we're on the topic, I think I'll start a new thread.... Best Homesick songs...

FrankieB

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Wavestar
Date: 20 May 01 - 05:36 PM

Point Lobos - what a beautiful place. I spent a very happy afternoon there once, watching a beach full of seals, a sea otter, and the crashing surf.

-J

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: Ruthie A
Date: 21 May 01 - 04:23 PM

The man's a genius. His description of London cabbies in 'Notes from a Small Island' rendered me in hysterics for months!

Ruthie

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: John J
Date: 21 May 01 - 04:56 PM

Sorry Les, I did say we could compare notes at the Jug, but something about those excess pints of Mudcat DT seemed to sabotage the plan. Next time (perhaps). John

Subject: RE: BS: BILL BRYSON
From: GUEST,dbranno in oz
Date: 22 May 01 - 01:43 AM

yeah mate,bill's ok,and i enjoyed the appalachian trail,and of course we all enjoy a good giggle at the poms,but some of the downunder stuff is just not right.billo prob'ly spent too much time being feted by the establishment to really get the point on such matters as the ned kelly story for example. he's bought wholesale the 'low anglican'version of oz history/culture,that always excludes or marginalises aborigines, convicts, the irish and anyone else that does't quite fit in this 'most british of colonies'. yer man greil marcus talks about the old weird america in his book invisible republic-well mate, upon extracting the offending digit,one can discern another landscape in the great south land,and oral culture, especially in such matters as ned kelly lend a vastly different aspect to the view.try ian jones 'a short life' and never forget henry lawson. happy trails,texas jack!