The Road to Little Dribbling

Love Bill Bryson!

I have read or listened to almost every Bill Bryson book written. (and I will read The Body: A Guide For Occupants soon) I particularly enjoy his audiobbooks - he brings them to life as no other narrator could.

Vintage Bill Bryson!

For those who thought Notes from a Small Island was theor favorite Bryson, you should know he has done a sequel which is even better. Meet the old man Bryson. More caustic wit which couldn't have mature better

The narrator is brilliant. Loved it!

I am a Bryson fan girl so of course I loved the book but the narrator, Nathan Osgood, made it so much better! I heard and re-heard some parts because they were so impeccable.

In search of the adjective in the sentence

What disappointed you about The Road to Little Dribbling?

Really annoying read.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Chosen a reader who got the style.

How could the performance have been better?

This reader thought he was reading a thriller not a laconic, witty travelogue. It sounded as though he had been handed the book 30 secs before the read - the sentences took him by surprise or, maybe, he just has no idea of the structure of a sentence. So often the emphasis would be on the noun rather than the adjective - greenBELT, roundABOUT. The only saving grace was that he had swotted up on how to pronounce the place names correctly. But the style of the book was, clearly, a complete mystery to him.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Road to Little Dribbling?

No editing, just a producer.

Any additional comments?

Has Bill Bryson heard this audio book?

Grave Disappointment

What would have made The Road to Little Dribbling better?

A strong infusion of Bryson's wit and eye for oddity -- from 15 years back.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Certainly - anything by Bryson is worth looking at.

Any additional comments?

I bow to nobody in my admiration for Bryson. I've read all his books as they came out and there are comic scenes in many of them that made me laugh out loud - a rare thing. To my mind, his 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is a book I'd like to see put in the hands of every intelligent 14 year old who is interested in how the world got to be the way it is and humans' place in it. Bryson has, or had, a huge gift for making a popular synthesis of history and science. This book is serious disappointment. The witty persona he has cultivated through his career seems to be dissolving in all round grouchiness and moaning about Britain, his adopted homeland. His constant bitching about prices of sandwiches etc does not amuse, coming from someone who must (deservedly) be a rich man. Similarly, his pose of ingenuousness, attractive in earlier books, rings hollow here. Among other things, I simply don't believe Bryson has never heard of the painter Leighton, as he claims! Large chunks of the book, especially the biographical vignettes, have the air of being paraphrased from Wikipedia. Also his regular laments about not being able to recall things that happened 2 weeks ago are disconcerting. I suppose Bryson has reached the stage where his publishers are happy to slap anything he writes between covers and push it out. What a shame. The narrator, though, does a very sound job in the circumstances.

Sarcasm and base humour.

This is the first time ever, that Mr Bryson has disappointed me. Sure the book is an easy read/listen. I found his views rather distasteful at times. Using the word 'vegetable' when referring to a person he'd like to assault was rather poor. His views of the changing culture in Britain were more sarcasm than humour. Far too many sentences related to his behaviour and attitude towards others than necessary. Base and rather vulgar language was unnecessary. After 19 chapters I gave up. About to re-listen to a Walk in the Woods to renew my faith.