Bill Bryson wrote two of your favorite non-fiction books, "Mother Tongue" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything." His wit and wry observations always keep you laughing through any subject matter and add a level of charm to his work that you don't usually find in the non-fiction section of book stores. "At Home" doesn't disappoint. It is wonderfully readable.
In "At Home," Bryson decided to discover the answers to all sorts of little questions that arose as he walked through his charming little home in the English country side. He realized quite suddenly one day that history is really just "masses of people doing ordinary things." He also realized that no one had ever really written a history book about those ordinary things, so he decided to write one himself.
Each chapter is named after a room in the house although sometimes the connection between the room and the subject matter is a bit arbitrary, as in the chapter about the study, which is mostly about the shocking number of critters we humans live alongside. But this random connection between places and subject matter is part of the fun of the book. You never know where history will take you, and you never know where Bryson's imagination and insatiable curiosity will take you either. One moment your are deep in the details of the life of servants in the Victorian England, and the next you are pondering the clothing and tools found on a prehistoric mummified corpse found frozen in the Alps.
One of the things you loved about "At Home," and about most of Bryson's books, is how easy it is to pick up and read. The book has a loose enough narrative arc that you could really just pick it up and read any page at random and find some new fascinating thing to go annoy your endlessly patient wife with.
As with many other non-fiction books you were tempted to dog ear every other page to mark some random fact you wanted to remember. This blog is supposed to be a reminder to you of what you've read and what you don't want to forget, but with a book as filled with so many shocking facts about the most seemingly mundane things, there is the temptation to just make a list of the hundreds of points you want to remember. But that would be a pretty boring blog.
What is not boring is how rich the subject of human history really is. What "At Home" reminded you of is the same realization that Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" evokes, the realization that history isn't just what important men and big governments have done over the years. History is what all of us do every day. All of us, from the Queen of England down to the lowest scullery maid, are all part of the same story.
Above all, "At Home" has a quality to it that you found familiar... Wonder. Bryson is fascinated by the most seemingly inconsequential things, and his curiosity echoes your own wonder at how endlessly interesting the world is. Everything and everyone has a story and they are all constantly irresistible to both Bryson and to you.
As far as listing the most fascinating parts of the book, there is no way to fit them all into one blog post. A word of advice, hold on to this book. You'll want to read it again.
On to the next book!
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