Tracy T. (charliebear) -
Helpful Score: 6
With this book Bill Bryson has gone from being an amusing writer with a gift for connecting the most abstract to the most specific, to being an unfocused cataloger of arcane information he picked up in the course of his other work.
As an avid reader of Bryson's earlier work, I was wholly disappointed by Bryson's inability in this book to tie together the stories he presents with his chapter subjects. At his most weak moments, he offers a sentence at the beginning and a sentence at the end to try to bring himself back to the subject at hand, while ignoring that he has just led readers through 30 pages of unrelated information.
After reading it halfway through, I could no longer tolerate the disconnected ramblings and began to wonder if Bryson wasn't rushed through this project (or perhaps heavily aided in it) by an over eager editor.
This is not Bryson at his best and this book is not worthy of him. What could have been another brilliant piece to add to his collected works turns out to be a shambles of notecards thrown together under a "bait and switch" title.
As an avid reader of Bryson's earlier work, I was wholly disappointed by Bryson's inability in this book to tie together the stories he presents with his chapter subjects. At his most weak moments, he offers a sentence at the beginning and a sentence at the end to try to bring himself back to the subject at hand, while ignoring that he has just led readers through 30 pages of unrelated information.
After reading it halfway through, I could no longer tolerate the disconnected ramblings and began to wonder if Bryson wasn't rushed through this project (or perhaps heavily aided in it) by an over eager editor.
This is not Bryson at his best and this book is not worthy of him. What could have been another brilliant piece to add to his collected works turns out to be a shambles of notecards thrown together under a "bait and switch" title.
Helpful Score: 3
A good editor would have helped this book quite a bit. At 471 pages, this book was about 300 pages too long--too much wandering off topic combined with too much over simplification of history. I started skimming about half way through, while there is the occasional glimmer of Bryson's trademark sense of humor, it's not enough to make this book a keeper.
Emi B. (wantonvolunteer) -
Helpful Score: 1
The same way Bill Bryson entertained and guided me along the Appalachian Trails in A Walk In The Woods, he's provided here in At Home a thorough and thoroughly enjoyable education on the history of all things home-related! Bill Bryson is an American, and the house he describes in this book was originally built as a rectory in the British village in Norfolk.
Each chapter is based on a separate room, and I think the funniest section is Chapter XVI The Bathroom; in it for example Bryce describes the uber-modest Victorians' transition from bathing-averse to bathing-happy. "What really got the Victorians to turn to bathing, however, was the realization that it could be gloriously punishing... Many diaries record how people had to break the ice in their washbasins in order to ablute in the morning... One early type of shower was so ferocious that users had to don protective headgear before stepping in lest they be beaten senseless by their own plumbing."
Each chapter is based on a separate room, and I think the funniest section is Chapter XVI The Bathroom; in it for example Bryce describes the uber-modest Victorians' transition from bathing-averse to bathing-happy. "What really got the Victorians to turn to bathing, however, was the realization that it could be gloriously punishing... Many diaries record how people had to break the ice in their washbasins in order to ablute in the morning... One early type of shower was so ferocious that users had to don protective headgear before stepping in lest they be beaten senseless by their own plumbing."
Patsy M. (patsyjean) -
Helpful Score: 1
I am probably missing a lot of interesting information and important historical facts about everyday living by not finishing this book, but it was just too much. I liked the book and skipped around to different parts, but couldn't read it all the way thru.
Heather G. (flyheatherfly) reviewed At Home: A Short History of Private Life on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Bill Bryson turns his eye into his own home in this thick but interesting book. Each room teaches you something about English history, or gives details about how pieces of furniture came into use . It is typical of his writing, it meanders from one topic to the next, but in an interesting and engaging way. If you are a fan of his other books you should enjoy this one. Each chapter can be read independently, you can hopscotch through the book without losing the theme.
Very interesting book about the history of how mundane household items came into being, and how the home itself has evolved over time. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by the author himself. Probably a good idea NOT to read the chapter on the bathroom while having a snack...
It wasn't really a history and it was very loosely tied to the house he was supposedly using to trace history. It was also very dense. The first third was mostly about Victorian England the next chunk about the Gilded Age in the US and then bounced around for the rest. It didn't so much trace the history of anything as jump to a single slice in time and use it to (sometimes with the barest of connections) jump off into some historical side that didn't always relate to the room or anything in it well. I had expected more of the history of things in the room or the room itself, not a single-snapshot of something about the room and then an unrelated history lesson. Very dense, very weighty, but not really what it describes itself as and lacking cohesion. I don't regret reading it, but I can't really recommend it either--and certainly not to anyone who wants what is described on the back!
