Bryson has done it again! I lived in Australia for quite a few years and reading this book brought back a rush of memories. His wit is insightful, and internationally "spot on." He doesn't really have a go at the Australians, as much as say, guitely pointing out unique quirks the Auzzies have developed for themselves down under.

I read this book on a plane ride back from Australia a few years ago, and caught myself laughing out load more than once.

Great book, Bill.

This book contains more than you expect. Bill Bryson covers language its self with a focus on English. The book covers speech from a historical view, a physical view, an environmental view, a utilitarian view, and many other views. You will want to play the tape over again as it cruses through many concepts that leave you thinking and speculating how it could have all gone differently.
A highlight for me (aside from his dirty word list) was the recognition that we try to impose Old Latin syntaxes on Modern English and it can get reticules.
My only disappointment comes when he mentions things I have already read and gets it wrong or off the mark.
The advantage of the tape is that you actually hear the pronunciations. When it is a matter of spelling the reader will spell it out for you. Also the reader has the ability to change accents to fit the dialect samples.
The disadvantage is when you want to turn back to a particular page for cross-reference; there is no page to turn. So I would be smart to won both versions.

I picked up this book at a used booksale, along with about 2 dozen other travel books. It was by far the best of any of them! I had read Mr. Bryson's Neither Here Nor There prior to diving into Palace, and enjoyed finding in this text a few more detailed summaries of the sights in his travelogue. Set up by country, Palace describes anywhere from one to 25 little-known sights for each country with enchanting, humorous detail. I am about to spend a year in Europe, and will certainly be investigating many of his "secrets". His descriptions were extroadinary, and I fell in love with some of the places just reading about them; I can't wait to actually experience them. As I searched through the 2 guidebooks that I am taking with me (a Let's Go and a Lonely Planet), I was thoroughly astounded at the number of places in Palace which weren't even mentioned in either of these. And if they were mentioned, 9 times out of 10, what Mr. Bryson wrote was infinitely more valuable. It is an insightful, enjoyable read, with characteristic brutal honesty from Bryson. A note of caution, though: This book was written about 15 years ago, and Europe has changed quite a bit since then. For example, Bryson lists the Algarve as one of Portugal's most beautiful, non-touristed spots, and it has since become a major tourist destination. There are several other extremely unique sights that probably no longer are in existence, but I am looking forward to searching them out anyway! I would certainly enjoy a more recent edition, should Mr. Bryson care to do all that careful research over again! Heck, I'd love to help! For anyone traveling through Europe with a "Back Door" philosophy, or for someone who likes the idea but can't stomach Rick Steves, this book is a jewel.

Bill Bryson's "Short History" was aimed at people like me, I believe; a humanities major who found the sciences an alien universe, incomprehensible to those who hadn't mastered its formulas and jargon. His three years of reading, research and interviewing has resulted in an accessible, educational, entertaining book that tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions, such as where did the universe come from? and what makes humans human? Bryson was interested not only in what the answers to the questions are, but how we found those answers, and who the people were who unlocked these mysteries.
I suspect that those who are well versed in the sciences might find this a bit superficial (after all, the entire story of the universe is a lot to pack into less than 500 pages), but if you're looking to fill in some gaps in your knowledge of our world, this book is for you. Take the journey with Bryson; you'll enjoy the trip.

I've spent the past few days devouring Bill Bryson's latest work: A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's an incredible read and reinforces how amazing the history of the earth really is. Bill's wit and comedic timing that has made all his previous travel books instant classics is absent, but it has been replaced with an enthusiastic and somber tone that is just as interesting to read. I've enjoyed all his previous books, but I like this one just as much, even though it's a bit of a departure.

Bryson took three years to research the book by conducting interviews and reading lots of history and it comes through in the text. You almost feel like you were in the room with Bill, following prominent scientists around, asking newbie questions. Bryson comes off as genuinely enthralled by the subjects at hand and you learn new things along with him. The narrative reminds me a great deal of James Burke's books and Connections TV series. Bryson not only tells the tales of how things came to be, but he's constantly weaving a link between all the various stories and pulling similar themes out.

It's a fantastic book and reminds me why I was so enamored by science in school. It also drives the point home many times that we are very, very lucky to be standing here, doing what we do everyday. The chances that the universe came together to enable it are insanely slim for all sorts of reasons as you will quickly find out.

I have to admit I ordered the CD blindly--not quite sure what Bill Byrson was going to get up to, and I was pleasantly surprised that the history of science was the agenda. I enjoy science history books and the light-hearted travelogues of Bill's, so this was perfect for me. Bill's other books have a more rambling tone to them and I was very impressed with his logical organization of this vast material. Entertaining and informative as well as an inspiration for further reading (and listening)--thanks, Bill!

TEST:
When you see photos or films of intrepid explorers risking life, limb and treasure to climb a mountain because it was there, do you:
a)hold your breath find your heart beating faster, admiring them b)always remember that the photographer with equipment was AHEAD of the explorer.
Answer b) and this book is for you. A spoof in the spirit of Dr. Strangelove. A great summer read.

If you like British humor and have ever been involved in an expedition or read expedition books, this book is hilarious. It is a classic of mountaineering literature.

Bill Bryson, in his introduction to this book, calls it one of the funniest books a person will ever read. I'll grant that it is funny, but certainly not the funniest book I've ever read. (Actually, I'd really have to think long and hard about what was the funniest book I've ever read, but that's not germane to this review.) It's well-written, with the typical understated British dry wit that does have the reader, occasionally, doubling over with laughter, although most of the time I just chuckled at the writing. It's about a singularly unsuited team of mountaineers attempting to climb Rum Doodle, the world's highest peak at 40,000 and a half feet. No one member of the party seems to be actually fit to play his part in the expedition, and the leader of it seems peculiarly unaware of what is going on about him, from drunkenness to dereliction of duty, and other things. He spends his time finding out about his party members either having, or not having, a fiance. There's a guide who couldn't find his way out of a telephone booth, an interpreter who constantly enrages the porters because he can't get the local language correct, and other assorted misfits. Read the book by all means, bcause it is funny, but take with a grain of salt some of the extravagant praise heaped upon it.

When Bill Bryson's newest book was published, I had been home from my 5 month semester abroad in Australia for almost as long. Still achingly missing a country I had come to love and feel at home in, I eagerly ran to the bookstore to buy Bryson's book.

Yes, the book is overall entertaining and pretty much witty; it's easy to read and a little hard to put down. But for the most part, i was disappointed. Occasionally, I would even find myself thinking, "I could have written this book and done Australia more justice!"

Australia is a spectacular, wonderful, welcoming, enchanting country. As if anyone could have any doubt about that after listening to Bryson effuse for 300 pages. Perhaps some will find the fact that he sings the Lucky Country's praises page after page grating; for me, I felt I had found someone with whom I could sympathize about missing the place!

However, for all his accolades, Bryson seems to only brush the surface of a country rich in history, landscape, and experiences waiting to be had. He spends only ONE DAY at one of Australia's most recognizable landmarks, Uluru, the giant monolith; he is too much of a sissy to even GO UNDER WATER at the Great Barrier Reef; he misses out on the beauty and home-i-ness of Adelaide (my home away from home!); he doesn't see an opera at the world famous Opera House; and he doesn't even VISIT Tasmania, a place almost too beautiful and wild to put into words.

Having lived in Australia for those 5 months, and having traveled extensively, I was looking for something to aleviate the sadness of having had to come "home" from a place I had become so attached to. I wanted something to evoke a vivid trip down memory lane. What I found did not live up to those expectations, and I suspect for those like me, the feeling will be the same. And for those of you who have yet to visit Australia, there's more out there than Bryson relays; it's better than the book.

Born and raised in Iowa, Bill Bryson spent 20 years in England before moving back to the United States to live in the perfect college town, Hanover, New Hampshire. A syndicated columnist, many of his columns about life in Hanover have been collected and published in "I'm a Stranger Here Myself," an enjoyable book, but because of the nature of its source material (syndicated columns) also a simple and highly sanitized one. At no point is the reader confronted by complex intellectual concepts or any obscenities.

"In a Sunburned Country" is a different matter. Written as an integrated book, it is a wonderful introduction to the more intellectually complex aspects of Australia, as well as the funnier ones, providing fascinating anthropological, botanical, geological, historical, political and sociological insights about our friends Down Under. Prior to reading it, I had dismissed Australia as being little more than a very dull version of America in the Fifties; Like Bryson, I now view it as the most fascinating place on earth. Similarly, I had viewed Mr. Bryson as being a male Erma Bombeck; I now view him as one of the more intelligent writers I have encountered.

The Australian Tourism Authority should consider licensing this book and either giving it away to prospective visitors or otherwise using it to promote the country. It is that good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bill. As a proud Australian, it has been a never-ending source of irritation that Australia is forever portrayed as a land of beer-swilling "yobbos" who say "cobber" and "fair dinkum" rather a lot. For instance, 'The Simpsons' - usually such a witty, clever and insightful show - completely missed the point in their Australian episode. Finally, someone has managed to capture a bit of the character of this great country. He releases it from the shackles of the Paul Hogan stereotype.

This is a terrific read. Bryson has, mercifully, gone well and truly off the beaten track to explore many different parts of Australia - the cities, the outback, the tropics, and everything else in between. But as ever with a Bill Bryson book, more than the destination itself, the pleasure is in getting there. Laugh-out-loud moments abound, though perhaps more in the restrained way of "A Walk in the Woods", as opposed to the guffaw-fest that is "Neither Here Nor There".

You don't have to be at all familiar with Australia to appreciate and enjoy this book. I am, sadly, one of those Australians to which Bryson refers that has never seen Ayers Rock / Uluru myself. In fact, I have never been to the majority of places Bryson visits. It was a revelation for me, too.

Bryson once again recounts numerous historical and trivial anecdotes which, together with his unique view of the world, elevate this book well above the mere travel genre. This is insightful, this is informative, this is FUNNY.

Perversely, my only criticism is perhaps that he likes Australia a little too much. God knows, I'm so pleased that he does. However, he is, I believe, at his best when distressed. Dull and drab places, and stupid, mindless people bring out the devil in Bill Bryson, and have always proven to be useful comic fair. There are elements of that here - his body boarding experience, his views on Canberra, and his trials and tribulations with hotel receptionists in Darwin - but at the end of the day, opportunities to vent his sarcastic wit are somewhat limited.

Being an enthusiastic and devoted fan of the great Stephen Katz, I would also have loved to have seen him deal with the hardships of outback Australia. He would have absolutely LOATHED it.

Read this book. It is a treat.

The title is right: this is some of the best travel writing I have encountered.

It's a collection of short stories, with travel as a common theme. Few are what I'd call tourist guides.

Some of the first few stories stories are about sailboat racing, surviving a night in New York's Central Park, bus riding in Uganda, trucking in tropical Australia, selecting the Panchen Lama, and documentaries about wine and food. There's plenty of variety.

These stories are like good meals: satisfying, pleasant and easy to digest. But they are not lightweight reading. One learns about places and practices that are strange and sometimes disturbing.

It's a book to read in short sessions. I read it at home, in the evenings, but it would be a great to take on a trip.

After reading this book, I decided I hate travel guides but love travel writing. Travel guides tell you where to go so that you'll run into more pasty, spoiled americans like yourself; travel writing gives you a sense of the land and the people. I loved this collection of essays because it took me to other places and educated me about their history and inhabitants. I learned about the yuppification of Nantucket, the bloody past of Zanzibar, ethnic conflicts in western China, a brutal kidnapping in Uganda, the environmental efforts in Bhutan. Some pieces are frightening; some are humorous. All are enlightening. My only complaint is that I wish more pieces by women had been included -- I would have liked to hear more about the experiences of women in exotic lands. All in all, a fine collection of essays.

While the book has a diversity in destinations it has one quality that remains story to story. Vivid discriptions of unique travel experiences. I must agree with Bill Bryson (Editor) when he states that "travel writing is a genre whose time as come". While many of the names are well know, some of the new names in the collection are pulled from magazines not on my usual reading schedule. A mistake I will correct. But for now I have some new places to look for great travel writing. Lard is Good for You is one example. Alden Jones wrote the piece for Coffee Journal, it is something I may never have read but am mighty glad I had a chance.

USA writer living in the UK, Bill Bryson takes stock of America. This book provides a humorous and critical re-look at the history of American and its version of the English language. I thoroughly enjoyed the book initially. The irreverant look at "real American history" rather than the fabricated and polished "offical version" was refreshing and enlightening. However, the "packed full o' facts" style gets tiresome after a while. Some of the "startling revelations" (Bill's special style)are intriguing -- but made me start to question his research as much as the accuracy "official history". I noticed a large number of factual errors particularly when he compared English-English and US-English -- many words and phrases that he claims are dead in England are in fact in very common usuage and some that he claims are alive in the US I have never heard or read in the US (or not in works published in the last 100+ years), and vice versa. It got to the point where the author had to some degree discredited himself in my eyes. Hopefully readers will not take his assertions at face value. Although ostensibly humerous, this book is actually formatted as something of a candid, factual modern update on the history of America and the contemporary American and English languages. A lot of people love Bill's work, but regretably I cannot recommend this particular book. [Hard-nosed BBC interviewer, Jeremy Paxman seemed to encounter similar problems in his recent book about the English -- perhaps this seemly innocuous subject matter is more challenging than might be expected?]. By all means try this book, it has redeeming qualities and my relations love Bill's work, including this book -- but take it with a pinch of salt.

This is by far my favorite book by Bill Bryson. I bought this for my wife who is a devotee of word derivations, but found that it sated my interest in history, and also provided a multitude of fun, and interesting, facts about popular culture.

Unlike most of Bryson's works this is a serious scholarly effort, but is written in an entertaining rather than academic fashion. Also, unlike other Bryson works this is less opinionated, and uncharacteristically celebrates the many fascinating and admirable factors in the evolution of a distinct American culture.

While his typical sardonic humor comes through it is more understated, and not at all unkind.

A fun and educational book that you will want to leisurely enjoy a chapter at a time, and not necessarily in sequential order.

After reading "The Lost Continent," Bryson's often whining and largely overrated travelogue on small-town America, I hesitated before picking this one up. However, this is a very enjoyable book. Ostensibly a study of American English, its development and impact on the English language in general, this book is more of a compendium of linguistic facts and historical trivia that cover the entire scope of U.S. history from the colonial period to the present. Bryson quite unabashedly plunders the works of historians, other scholars and writers who dealt with the same subjects, so what he offers here is hardly new. But the presentation and organization are impeccable. While informing us of the origins of many words and expressions common to American English, he also provides a wealth of particularly useful information on things like American cuisine or the origins of America's highway system and car culture (one of my only criticisms is that he failed to mention the origin of quintessential car-related Americanisms like "rumble seat" or "to ride shotgun"). Bryson's engaging writing style and dry humor keep the book moving, so it is never dull and always very amusing - it seriously lives up to that old cliché about how learning can be fun.

I was just unwinding after an intense period of work and looking for an easily digestable, fun read. This book fulfilled my conditions- sharp, astute perceptions of Americana. It's a collection of a newspaper column so each chapter is short and never outstays its welcome, which was a problem I had with Notes from a Small Island.

The problem I had with some articles is that Bryson is no researcher/ reporter and he should steer clear of trying to generalize complex problems, such as environmental problems, in 2-3 pages. His opinionated tone can backfire, especially when it displays his lack of knowledge. For instance, he complains that a guy left his engine on while spending 4 minutes buying stuff from a grocery. I think it's common knowledge that starting the car consumes a lot more energy than leaving the engine on for four minutes. He misses the irony, ironically for a person writing books about humor, of the New York Times movie review - he says "The New York Times recently concluded a review of a new Chevy Chase movie with this sombre warning:'Vegas Vacation is rated PG. Besides sexual suggestiveness, it shows rattlesnakes and gambling.' He confuses the idea of overpopulation with no. of people/ square mile- the relatively low ratio of no. of people / area that the US has doesn't mean that the cities (where immigrants flock to) aren't overcrowded.

So, if you can take his opinions with a pinch of salt and remind yourself that this is only a humor column, you're less likely to nitpick his views and just enjoy it as a diverting read.

I purchased the paperback before a flight. I read the first few essays and could not contain my chuckles. The passenger sitting next to me promptly relocated.

The essays are extremely humourous and great fun to read. I found many of the analogies to the American way of life correlated with my South African upbringing, i.e. driving from your door 50 metres to a store.

Read 'Notes from a Big Country' for a light-hearted comical look at yourself and life.

In 1996, Bill Bryson was asked to write a weekly column about America for the "Mail On Sunday's Night & Day" magazine. Even though Bryson claimed not to have the time for writing those "Notes From A Big Country," his friend Simon Kelner insisted on his doing so. The result is an often hilarious, sometimes thought-provoking approach to the unique US culture. Having been born in Iowa, but having lived many years in Great Britain, Bill Bryson has the advantage of being American and being able to see his own culture from a different perspective.

The book "Notes From A Big Country" contains 78 columns from the first 18 months of Bryson's work. In the first one titled "Coming Home," he tells the reader how it was for him to come home after spending nearly two decades in England: "Returning home after such an absence is a surprisingly unsettling business, a little like waking from a long coma." (p 15) Reading the remaining 77 columns is like being taken by the hand by the author, who re-discovers the uniqueness of his own culture -- things he remembers from his childhood, things which have changed since he had left, and things which are new for him. Bryson talks about the positive sides of the American Way Of Life, but doesn't hesitate to mention negative sides. Some of the columns' headlines are somewhat telltale: "Dumb And Dumber," "Junk Food Heaven," "Commercials, Commercials, Commercials," "Friendly People," "Those Boring Foreigners," "Why No One Walks," "So Sue Me," "The Waste Generation," "Shopping Madness," "The Fat Of The Land," and "Stupidity News" to name only a few.

Bill Bryson did an excellent job bringing out the essence of US culture in a highly entertaining way. The book is a great read both for Americans and non-Americans. Some of the essays might lead to interesting discussions -- teachers might want to use them for their English classes. All in all, "Notes From A Big Country" is a fun and also educating book for everyone interested in learning more about American culture while being aware that Bryson is also a master of irony.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the writing style of it's author, Bill Bryson. He is witty, intelligent, knowlegdeable, and easily read, all at the same time.

The book (non-fiction and usually found in a travel section of a book store) centers around the existence of the appalachian trail in the eastern U.S.. After spending years away from America, in the boorish land of the Brits, Bill discovers the trail and decides to hike it from end to end. Initially he has trouble finding someone willing to go on this extended hike with him, but then an old school chum, Steven Katz, calls up and decides to join him. The two are a rumbling, bumbling, out of shape and disjointed pair that have you chuckling many times as you read on. Hiking the trail isn't an easy thing to do with your life on your back, or so they soon discover. But they plod along and along the way the reader gets some interesting history behind the trails establishment, the people they meet along it's course, the states that they amble through, and the general decay of their minds as they begin to see nothing but mile upon mile upon mile upon mile of trail ahead of them.

Did they hike the appalachian trail though? That is a question that each reader will have to answer for themselves. I think they did. I've hiked many miles in Alaska and I know what it's like to be on trails like that. They hiked it! Trust me!

This book is for anyone who likes to walk and enjoy nature. Mr. Bryson is a terrific writer, and I didn't realize till after I had bought the book that I had read another of his, The Mother Tongue, which I also loved. So I happily started in on this one, and he doesn't disappoint. I learned a lot about the Appalachian Trail (well, I hardly knew anything to begin with), but also learned about the National Park Service, along with some history of the eastern U.S., including the town of Centralia in Pennsylvania, which was vacated because of the coal seams under it burning out of control. He brings to his writing the perspective of having lived abroad for 20 years, along with a lively curiosity and sense of humor. There were places in this book that had me laughing till I cried. But when I read about the chestnut trees and birds that are now extinct, I just cried for the waste. This book is a pretty fast read, but that is partly because you just can't put it down.

"A Walk in the Woods" is an amusing, often witty, travelogue about hiking on the Appalacian Trail.

The story concerns the effort two middle aged men made recently to walk the 2,100 plus mile Trail from Georgia to Maine. This book is part travelogue, part mid-life crisis expose, and part treatise on aspects of the ever changing American woods and its flora and fauna.

Bill Bryson describes well the often spectacular aspects of America's foremost trail. It traverses across most of the eastern states, through mountain ranges and several different kinds of arboreal landscapes. The thought of two middle aged guys who are not exactly specimens of the trim and fit male embarking on a months long journey involving outdoor sleeping, portage of their supplies and comforts and a self-reliance most only encounter in history books is oddly appealing. It is not too difficult for me to envision myself in their place -- at least at the start of their hike when good intentions had yet to be tested against the dreary sameness of each mile. Thus it was easy to root for the two wanderers as surrogates making the great adventures many have taken only in our minds, those escapes that seem far removed from reality by the conditions and responsibilities of everyday existence. I think the book will appeal to many who want, if only occassionally, the chance to do something really different that lasts more than two weeks and does not involve Disneyland.

Bryson delivers on the story with a well written book. This book is not a day by day or mile by mile diary of their walk. He judiciously intersposes episodes from the trail with discussions of the history of the trail, the story of the national parks service, the effect of settlement and coexistence on animal and vegtible life and his relationship with "Katz," his travel companion, foil and the source for much of the wit that enlivens the tale.

There is much to amuse. Besides Katz, the hikers encounter interesting fellow travelers and Bryson turns his own missteps into humorous prose.

This is a well written book that will amuse the reader and hold his or her interest. Recommmended.