Good old Bill Bryson.

At the height (or trough?) of my reading funk a couple of weeks ago, I had the luck to bring home Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

I really enjoy Bill Bryson. Although he's an American, he's married to a British woman and currently lives in Great Britain, and I think he's got a particularly British and whimsically dry sense of humor. (Which is, of course, my very favorite kind of humor.) He's best known as a travel writer, but he also writes history books, most of which haven't set my world on fire. I couldn't get through his earlier bestseller, A Short History of Nearly Everything.

But this book was in the right place at the right time. Bryson currently lives in a former rectory that was built in 1850-1851, and as he describes the building plan for his house, room by room, he also shares broader historical tidbits: in the chapter on the hall he explores how heating and stove technologies developed; in the chapter on the bathroom he talks about sewage treatment; etc. He packs a lot of history in one volume, discussing ancient Briton settlements on one page and Victorian attitudes toward relaxation, sex, and child-rearing on the next.* And he does it all in typical Bryson style:

"When [George] Washington moved to Mount Vernon in 1754 after the death of his half brother Lawrence, it was a modest farmhouse of eight rooms. He spent the next thirty years rebuilding and expanding it into a mansion of twenty rooms...He fussed over every detail. For eight years during the Revolutionary War, through all the hardships and distractions of battle, he wrote home weekly to inquire how things were going and o issue new or modified instructions for some element of design. Washington's foreman wondered, understandably, whether this was a good time to be investing money and energy in a house that the enemy might at any moment capture and destroy...Luckily the British never reached Mount Vernon. Had they got there, they almost certainly would have spirited off Mrs. Washington and put the house and estate to the torch." (p. 301.)

Bryson at his best just has such a nice light touch with nonfiction. I'm glad I found this book when I did; I needed a good, interesting, but not particularly heavy read. Mr. CR read the whole thing through as well, which is rare--he doesn't start a lot of nonfiction, and he finishes even less.

*A friend of mine opined that the book was a bit too all-over-the-place for her, which I completely understood, but I think that's the aspect of it that appealed to me. The last few weeks my mind has been all over the place, so this book nicely matched my mood and interest level.

Comments

[Melanie]

I'm working on this one right now and really enjoying it. It does meander a bit, but I like knowing little gems of information to wow people with at any time.

[Citizen Reader]

Melanie,
I totally agree. I often love it when nonfiction authors meander. And yes, there's tons of good history tidbits here to sprinkle into conversations--but with my memory they'll be gone in a week. Sigh. Hope your memory is better so you can continue to wow people!

[Katharine]

I would not advise listening to this one, the meandering can get quite confusing. Bryson's reading voice put me to sleep on my latest bus trip, so the next time I will be reading his work the old fashioned way. There was some great tidbits in there that I caught between naps.

[Citizen Reader]

Katharine,
I always forget about audio books; I can quite honestly say a large part of the pleasure for me in Bryson's work is actually reading his prose. And if he's got a boring reading voice...forget it! Thanks for the word of caution.
That's my favorite way to get tidbits, by the way--between naps. Hope your trip up nort' was fun!!

[Maria]

You have no idea what a relief this post is. I love Bryson, but I also gave up on Short History of Nearly Everything. I thought something was wrong with me. At least now I know that if there is something wrong with me, I'm in good company!

[Citizen Reader]

Maria,
Nothing's wrong with you, or if there is, there's something wrong with both of us! I couldn't get through "Short History..." and I actively hated his memoir (the title was something with "Thunderbolt Kid"), but his travel stuff I pretty much always enjoy. I was pleased to like this one too--perhaps it was just a subject matter on which I had more interest.

[Sarah]

I'm not sure Mrs. Washington would have been around for the British to "spirit off". But that's just me.

[Citizen Reader]

Sarah,
Touche. Mrs. Washington was, by all accounts, a formidable woman herself. Perhaps she would have spirited some of the British off. But I still think it's a funny phrase.

[nike air max]

I was pleased to like this one too--perhaps it was just a subject matter on which I had more interest.

[Womens True Religion]

Above: Excited spectators outside the home of the Cock Lane Ghost.

The news of Fanny's murder spread, and the house in Cock Lane soon drew a large number of visitors, all eager to witness Elizabeth's convulsions and the bangings and scratchings of its resident restless spirit, by that time dubbed Scratching Fanny. Horace Walpole wrote of the ghost that 'a drunken parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the Methodists have adopted it, and the whole town of London think of nothing else' (W. S. Lewis, ed., The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, New Haven, CT, 1941). Séances, conducted by one Mary Frazer (a relative of Parsons) were held within the room which saw the most activity, and the street outside was sometimes impassible due to the large number of spectators present at these events. Even the Duke of York put in an appearance.