What I’m Reading: Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson

On my return from Europe a few weeks back, I was faced with one of life’s frequent and most difficult questions – what to read next?

I had several contenders on my shelf ready to go, from the classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to Icelandic-author Halldór Laxness’ The Fish Can Sing. Instead, I chose to nurse my post-holiday blues and selected Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island.

I had picked up the second-hand copy from a small book market in Southbank in London, the last stop of my trip. I’d never read any Bill Bryson before, but had heard many good things, and it seemed an appropriate souvenir (well that was the reason I gave myself for buying yet another book).

I was chuckling from the first page. I may have mentioned it in posts before, but I really love that British-style of humour – clever, dry and understated – and this book delivers. Bryson isn’t actually British (he’s an American from Iowa), but he has lived in England for much of his life, and writes in a British voice. Gems like ‘I had never had tea with milk in it before or a cookie of such rocklike cheerlessness. It tasted like something you would give a canary to strengthen its beak’ had me laughing aloud on the train from chapter one.

Fantastic start to chapter twenty.

Glossary at the back of the book of common British terms (helpful!)

Bryson’s sheer honesty is so compelling too; I felt like I was there with him on his journey of surprises, disappointments and small pleasures. He unapologetically offers his impressions and opinions on anything from hotels, pubs and shopping centres, to architecture and the public transport system. He will lament the loss of hedgerows throughout Britain with a passion equal to his praise of the theatrical performed as part of the Coronation Street studio tour (a British TV soap).

I love to talk about whichever book I’m reading at the time (what booklover doesn’t?), and since mentioning Bill Bryson I’ve been assailed with recommendations of which Bryson book to read next. Two that keep popping up are A Walk In The Woods (on Bryson’s trek of the Appalachian Trail), and A Short History Of Nearly Everything (basically what it sounds like!). I’ve added these to my ever-growing To Read list… As much as I love fiction, it’s good to break it up now and then with a non-fiction read. I found Bill Bryson to be a unexpected breath of fresh air.

Now what to read next…