At Home: A Short History of Private Life
By Bill Bryson
473 pages
Copyright 2010
I had not read Bill Bryson's work before, though I had heard of it, particularly his book A Walk in the Woods.
In this book, Bryson explores the stuff and the rooms of a home, particularly his home, and explains how come forks have four tines and things like that.
Since I enjoy things like that, and am a history buff, I really liked the book and the way it was written. Having said that, I confess to not finishing it simply because it made me tired. I was reading this for my book club, and book club came and went, and I have not been too interested in picking this back up because I wanted to read some fiction.
However, I do intend to finish this at some point. I think it is important to note that you could skip around if you wanted and not miss anything, because this isn't a story with a thread of any sort. It's a bunch of interesting facts and annotations and commentary all weaved together, room by room.
I learned a lot in the 275 pages that I have finished and I expect to learn much more when I do come back to this book.
I highly recommend this if you're interested in history and would like to know more about the world around you.
that sounds kind of interesting and one that i could easily read along side another book, such as fiction like you said...i'll have to check for it.
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