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Notes from a Small Island (Audiobook)

Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Corgi Audio
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

132 reviews
Sales Rank: 18052

Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.9

ISBN: 055215170X
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780552151702
ASIN: 055215170X

Publication Date: May 17, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 132

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Rants about a Small Island January 6, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

This was the fifth Bryson book that I have read and by far the most disappointing. The appeal of the other books of his that I've read (Short History, Thunderbolt, Mother Tongue, Walk in the Woods) is that they had provided a dose of iteresting trivia in an easy to read format (although I've seldom found them "laugh-out-loud funny" as many a reviewer seems to have done.) Small Island is just about as pointless a book as you could imagine. A journey around some random places in Britain with little in the way of description, history, geography, dialogue with locals or anything else. Instead we're treated to the sorts of rants that any person travelling on their own for eight weeks might have. He hates big dogs, people with interests that he doesn't share, anyone who makes an innocent mistake, architecture, etc. etc. etc. Almost anyone (with two months holiday and a limitless budget) could have written this book but I would suggest that most would have done it better.

4 out of 5 stars

Great book that is now a little dated November 21, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful

Bryson needs to re-write this book. By this I mean he should travel around Britain once more and write a new book based on his experiences. The reason for that is that Notes is now somewhat dated - it was written in the early 1990s and since then the nation has changed enormously. (His criticisms of the then Tory government have dated particularly badly when we now know how corrupt and incompetent its successor is.) I'd say that much of what Bryson came across is now very different or has just disappeared. Will he be wise and courageous enough to note these changes? It's a shame that he rarely pens travel books nowadays.
A few more observations on this book: it starts superbly; the first chapter set in Dover in the 1970s is funny and nostalgic and cosy and sets a standard that the rest of it can't quite live up to. If it had continued like this it would have been the funniest and most precious book ever written.
Bryson is occasionally prickly and spiky, nothing like the avuncular image he seems to have acquired. The incident in the McDonald's illustrates this - the chap behind the counter was only doing his job.
For me, the whole idea of a man wandering round towns and cities alone is quite evocative and a little sad. But I admire his courage in doing so. His experiences of pubs and Chinese restaurants really make you feel something. Sitting alone in a restaurant has always seemed to me an excruciating experience. However, if you have a copy of this book on me it may be more tolerable. Did I forget to say it's highly enjoyable?

5 out of 5 stars

I have read it again and again October 18, 2007
I love this book. I first read it when it came out and loved it. Now I read bits of it again and again. It's really funny and good to see what he says about places you know well or visit. I like the contrasts between the England of the 1970s when I was a child and of the 90s.Reading this has inspired me to read other travel books at the moment I am on 'Looking for England' by H.V Morton-written in the 1920s.

4 out of 5 stars

A polemic against bad town planning August 29, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

I first came across this book when I was at college over ten years ago and although it hasn't aged well it is still a very funny read. Yes, it is historically inaccurate (hence the 4 stars instead of 5 - the research could have been a bit more thorough) and yes, it is one long winge, but Bryson has something to winge about and winges very well. Something in Britain went horribly wrong in the 60s, 70s and 80s (and probably continues to go horribly wrong) and it went especially horribly wrong with building conservation and town planning. Britain in the early nineties was just waking up to the fact that communities had allowed the demolition of their most important buildings. This book was one of the slaps in the face that forced people to come round. A foreigner (a Yank, no less) telling us that we had all but wrecked our built environment? Well yes. Yes we had. Thank goodness now we are much more wise to the worst excesses of developers and planners (there is still room for improvement). Thank goodness for people like Bryson.

4 out of 5 stars

A pleasant read July 30, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I gave this book a try despite being disappointed with `A Brief History of Nearly Everything'. I must say I enjoyed this more, it was interesting and amusing to read how we and our country are perceived at a grass-roots level by an American and I think this is where this book probably differs from more conventional travelogues. He doesn't just concentrate on the main attractions, it's his observations about ordinary people in ordinary places that are so amusing. I had assumed that Bill Bryson was an anglophile but at times it was hard to tell as he spent a lot of time criticising places, notably and surprisingly Oxford. I enjoyed the book but not as much as I thought I would considering the praise it's received since it was first published.