Tracy T. (charliebear) - , reviewed on 12/19/2010 + 26 more book reviews

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.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details