Shit I'm Going To Be Reading This Summer

Yesterday's Top Ten Tuesday Topic (say it 10 times really fast) was the ten books at the top of your TBR for summer. I already had a post for yesterday (and I'll be DAMNED if I post more than once in a day. Unless it's a readathon day) and also I was going to write this list yesterday but something something lazy.

But it's a whole new day now, and I've decided two things- 1) it's good to have some kind of idea of the books I'm going to read next because otherwise I just finish a book, stare at my shelves for about half an hour, shrug and go and watch something on Netflix instead, and 2) you totally want to know what I'm going to be reading this summer. I can tell. So I picked out 10 books and here they are!

TA DAAAAA! And here are some things about them.

1. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner- This book seems fun, and also short, and ALSO it's set in Australia (or, the land of perpetual summer) and Kayleigh will be sad if I don't read it sometime soon (I mean, she'd probably be fine. But do I want to risk it? I do not!) Also it's rumoured to be kiiind of like Little Women in certain ways, so I. Am. Sold.

2. Middlemarch by George Eliot- I've been meaning to read this for a LONG time now, and this summer could be it's time? I hope so. Also it's my firm belief that BIG classics are at their best in the summer, read outside with cool drinks and warm weather.

3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- Most of the firm belief from above is based on that time about 5 summers ago when I read the majority of Gone With The Wind in my nan's garden, or, more accurately, when I time-travelled to Civil War era Georgia because that's how amazing it was. I'm trying to recreate that experience this summer, so... Wish me luck!

4. What Maisie Knew by Henry James- The movie comes out in the UK in August, so I want to read this before then. And why do I want to see the movie? No comment.

This is my comment.

5. My Life in France by Julia Child- France! And food! And Julia Child! There's no way this book isn't going to be cheery and excellent and will hopefully let me travel to France in my brain, just like a real summer holiday (note: Nothing like a real summer holiday.) But anyway, I'm excited to read it.

6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver- I... Don't really know what this book has to do with summer. But dammit, I want to read it and so I shall. I SHALL, I tell you.

7. Eating for England by Nigel Slater- I know for a fact that I have been seduced into thinking this is a summer book because THERE IS ROCK ON THE FRONT COVER which almost guarantees that I'm going to be transported to the seaside immediately. Presumably all the foods he talks about can't be summer foods, but still. It looks awesome. 

(aside: Do places that aren't England even have rock? It's terrible for your teeth but so so so good. Let's see what Wikipedia says about it)

8. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson- For more of that travelling in my mind stuff, this time across the small towns of America alongside everyone's favourite grumpy travelling companion, Bill Bryson! I dunno, my mind just associates Bryson with summer maybe because he fills my brain with fucking sunshine. (That was getting too poetic so I added in fucking. You're welcome.)

9. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen- It's big. It's chunky. I kind of like Franzen's writing in spite of all the things that are wrong with him as a person. Do I need any more reasons? I do not.

10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green- I am all out of summer reasons, but I've been meaning to read this for ages (as in, it's been next to my bed for a long time) and so I SHALL. Because crying outside is the best kind of crying, correct? (No.)

So yeah! That's what I'm planning on. I worked it out, because I am the kind of person who does such things, and altogether that's 4694 pages I'll be reading this summer, which is a ridiculous average of basically 470 pages per book. It might literally take every second of summer, but I CAN DO IT (probably. I don't know. Whatever, I might just read some other things anyway.) Anyway! Summer! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE.

Devouring Books: Down Under by Bill Bryson

"Do you know how sometimes on very fine days, the sun will shine with a particular intensity that makes the most mundane objects in the landscape glow with an unusual radiance, so that buildings and structures you normally pass without a glance become arresting, even beautiful? Well, they seem to have that light in Australia nearly all the time."

There are certain things I associate with Australia. Constant sunshine, tarantulas, Neighbours (its... a TV programme, not my actual neighbours. Although, having said that, the lady who lives next door is actually from Australia!), Heath Ledger, lifeguards, and long plane journeys. I think, in fact, I'd always considered the long plane journey the main factor for why I'd probably never actually see Australia, because, beautiful and hot and excellent as it might be, it's just too. Damn. Far. Away. 

I think Bill Bryson has changed that for me, and also made it onto the list of things I'm just going to have to associate with Australia. This is a weird thing for me to add him to, because I absolutely think of him as 'that man who lived in England and then moved back to the US, and also is very grumpy', but there you go. A whole new category for him. And, interestingly, in Down Under, he is almost never grumpy. I don't know what it is- maybe it was the near-constant sunshine, or the goddamn awesomeness of the Australian people (you're welcome, Kayleigh), but Bryson writes about Australia with the kind of positivity that he normally only reserves for writing about science.

Not that there isn't any science in Down Under. As you'd expect from any Bryson book, there's a mix of science, natural history, history-history, drinking, anecdoting, and just general juicy travelogue goodness that he really knows how to deliver on. And, whilst he doesn't give Australia a completely easy ride (he takes the piss out of it's political system, for one, and also spends a good chunk of time focusing on the poor treatment, even today, of the aborigine people) his love for the country and its people really shines through, and, well, I'm damned if I don't want to get on a plane right now and nip on over to Australia.

Because. As Bryson says, it's a country of all the extremes- the hottest, the driest, the least livablest, the deadliest (are any of these -ests convincing you yet?) but it has things that can't be found anywhere else on the planet, including the oldest living creatures and oh, hello, The Great Barrier Reef (which I'm now obsessed with, by the way.) And whilst I've never completely ruled out going to Australia (because that would be INSANE) now I can think of at least 20 things I want to see there, just off the top of my head, and more than that, I know some of the history behind these things, too. I also know that I have absolutely no interest in going to Canberra, but that's another matter entirely.

Just as an example of just how convincing Bryson is, here's an example for you (as if this whole review isn't an example!). I feel like I've been aware of Uluru (or, Ayers Rock for the culturally insenstive among us) for just about my whole life, but I've never once felt the urge to go and see it. I mean... it's literally just this huge rock in the Australian outback. Why would I want to see it? But. Bill Bryson makes it sound like literally the most incredible thing you could possibly see ever in the world, and, well, I'm convinced and now I'm desperate to see it. I don't know if this is just because I'm really easy to persuade (I could be!) or if it's because Bryson doesn't mince words when it comes to its epicness, but... Well, just read this:

"It's not that Uluru is bigger than you had supposed or more perfectly formed or in any way different from the impression you had created in your mind, but the very opposite. It is exactly what you expected it to be. You know this rock. You know it in a way that has nothing to do with calendars and the covers of souvenir books. Your knowledge of this rock is grounded in something much more elemental.

In some odd way that you don't understand and can't begin to articulate you feel an acquaintance with it- a familiarity on an unfamiliar level. Somewhere in the deep sediment of your being some long-dormant fragment of primordial memory, some little severed tail of DNA, has twitched or stirred. It is a motion much too faint to be understood or interpreted, but somehow you feel certain that this large, brooding, hypnotic presence has an importance to you at the species level- perhaps even at a sort of tadpole level- and that in some way your visit here is more than happenstance.

I'm not saying that any of this is so. I'm just saying that this is how you feel."

Basically... If I get to Uluru, and it isn't that amazing? I'm gonna be pissed, because actually getting there? Sounds like a BITCH.

 And really, Bryson talks about most of Australia with this much enthusiasm, if not quite so much reverence. Towards the end of the book, I was really just turning over pages for places I wanted to visit, because that's how excellent he makes everything sound. Essentially- I liked this book a lot, but not nearly as much as I now love Australia. Which, I guess, was kind of the point of the whole thing anyway. So, well played Bryson. Again.

Devouring Books: Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

"It seemed to me strange that in all the words written about the fall of the Iron Curtain nobody anywhere lamented that it was the end of a noble experiment. I know Communism never worked and I would have hated living under it myself, but it seems to me none the less that there is a kind of sadness in the thought that the only economic system that appears to work is based on self-interest and greed."

That quote about Communism came right near the end of Neither Here Nor There, and, frankly, it made any problems that I may or may not have had with this book completely obsolete. Which is not to say I had millions of problems or anything, but I had a few qualms- something which is pretty much unheard of for me with a Bill Bryson book! So, I'm just going to get all of them out of my system in the next paragraph, so you can forget all about them by the time you get to the end of the review so that you still want to read this. (Definitely read it! It's good!)

So. Bryson seems SO grumpy in this book, to a greater extent than in any other book I've read of his, although it's possible I just think that because I haven't read a book of his for a while. I mean, I know he's usually pretty grumpy, and I like it, but in this it just felt excessive. There's also the fact that he was mostly grumpy at tourists, which is something he clearly was to be able to write this book, which smacks a little bit of... 'I'm more important than you, so I'm allowed to be a tourist, but NO ONE ELSE IS.' Having said that, he does a little bit go 'yeah, I know I'm a tourist so I'm totally being a hypocrite', and self-awareness? I approve of it a lot. And then, the other thing that slightly bugged me was that it's a really out of date account of travelling in Europe (it was published in 1990) so there are places he visited where I was like 'well, that's clearly different now' and 'the Swiss are NOT that boring!' but this isn't something that it's really fair to be annoyed at because, well, he can't exactly just change his experiences of the places like annually and just spend his life travelling round Europe! Or can he..?

Anyway. So, grumble grumble grumble. OH, and one final grumble- he was mean about Sweden! I'm basically convinced that Sweden is the greatest place on Earth (sorry, America) and so reading his 'yeah, it rained ALL THE TIME' and 'this guy peed in the street in Stockholm' and his basically not saying anything nice about Sweden at all made me really cross! But having said that I haven't actually been there, so... maybe it does suck (FORGIVE ME, SWEDEN!) But. Apart from Sweden? There were basically, as Bryson described it, good and bad parts to every country, as you would expect, and the bits that are good are described so beautifully that it makes you want to uproot and go to ALL THE PLACES, immediately. Honestly, I'm kind of desperate to go to Bruges now, and Capri sounds basically like heaven, and they're all so close to me! Damn you, Bryson.

Here's a little aside: I've just realised (having looked at a list of the places he visited) that he didn't venture into Spain once. This is kind of weird to me- it's a massive country, and whilst it's totally a tourist hotspot for English people (the awful kind) there are still places like Barcelona that have a lot of culture and things. Hmm. Now I'm really intrigued as to why he didn't go there! Answers on a postcard please.

Um. What else? Well, I liked the way Bryson tied in his earlier travels in Europe, when he first came over from America, with his modern day (HA! Old modern day) trip, and, as always, I enjoyed all the Katz anecdotes. I honestly want Bryson to basically have lived with Katz for the entirety of their twenties, just for the anecdotes he would have gotten! I mean, he also would probably have ended up murdering him, but what's a little murder compared to hilarity and Katz-isms? Nothing, that's what I say. As long as he'd gotten away with it and been able to still travel around and write books, obviously. Anyway, ignore the murder thing. But KATZ! He was great in A Walk in the Woods, and he remains awesome, albeit ridiculous, in this book.

So. A crotchety middle aged man (when has Bryson not been middle-aged? Really, tell me!) travels around Europe and complains about a lot of things, but also points out some magnificent European things that I should probably see someday. It's by no means an up-to-date guide of what's hip and happening in Europe (and, bless him, I doubt it was even when it came out. And also, you probably guessed that by the fact that some of these countries still had Communism! Jeez!) but there's still plenty to get out of it in a travel guide sort of way, and much more to gain in an anecdotal, awesomely written sense. As always with Bryson books, you should basically probably read this. Obviously.

I read this book as part of the Fuck the Patriarchy Readathon. If you'd like to donate to Rape Crisis, please visit this Justgiving page. Thanks!

Devouring Books: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods is my FOURTH Bryson book of the year. That's basically 4 Brysons in as many months, which is an INSANE number of books by one author to read in such a short time. But the thing is, as you may have noticed by now, Bryson isn't just any author. He's fairly excellent. Like... some crotchety old uncle who complains LOADS, but when you actually listen to him he really knows what he's talking about and has some really interesting insights into stuff. And then you sort of wish he was your uncle, and that you could go walking on the Appalachian Trail with him just cause he's so awesome.

That's what this book's about, by the way. Bryson's all like 'ooh, I've just moved to New Hampshire and the AT is right by my house... I should write a book about it' because he has the thought processes of a normal person. Ahem. Deciding to walk the whole thing is a decision that he almost immediately regrets, and so what follows are descriptions of bear attacks, murders and just general bad deaths on the old AT, making one think that maybe, just maybe, this isn't necessarily going to be Bryson's most successful mission ever.

It is a lot of fun though. Made much, MUCH funnier by the inclusion of Bryson's old friend Katz (who apparently also appears in Neither Here Nor There, aka the next Bryson book I'm reading, clearly). And here's why Katz is so great: Bryson is really good at researching things and writing things in a grumpy yet charming way, but he's also fairly polite to strangers. Katz is... much less concerned with social niceties like that, and pretty much just says what's on his mind. He's not outright HORRID to anyone, but he doesn't waste his time being polite to people who he's not really interested in. This may make him not the nicest person in real life, but in terms of reading a book, he's sort of awesome. He's so awesome, in fact, that I managed to forget Bryson's typical writing style of 'here's what I was doing and now some background on the place' (which, by the way, I really like) and started thinking 'why is he telling me all this boring crap? WHERE'S KATZ AND WHAT IS HE DOING?' Seriously. Weird.

So Katz is the real star of the book, but the other one is the Appalachian Trail itself. And what a trail it is. Over 2000 miles of woodland and nature and walking a lot, all the time, whilst carrying everything you might need on your back. In other words, it's the kind of thing that sounds good on paper, but in reality seems like a fucking nightmare, which is something that Bryson comes to realise over the first part of the trail. But still... I kind of want to walk it. The whole thing. Even though I'd almost definitely die or be eaten by a bear or something. It's just another one of those things that makes America so appealing to me- I mean, the entirety of Great Britain (Lands End to John O'Groats) is 814 miles, which doesn't come anywhere close to the AT, which doesn't even stretch down the whole of the East Coast of the US or anything. I just... the scale of America is RIDICULOUS to a teeny island dweller like me, but it's also very very appealing- as is the notion that you could walk across the whole country and see so many different things... Just amazing.

It's official, guys- I heart America.

ANYWAY. This book, it is good. I shant tell you whether or not Bryson and Katz walked the whole of the AT because that would sort of ruin the thing, and besides, it doesn't really matter- it's all about the journey, and the things they learnt along the way. And also about Bryson being able to have a little complain about the growth of small towns and the super short American attention span (my love for America isn't really encouraged by anything Bryson says ever, if I'm completely honest). I have the utmost respect for this book though, for one reason alone- Bryson had the perfect opportunity to mention Dollywood when he was hiking through the Smoky Mountains, and mention it he did. That makes any book a winner in my eyes.

Devouring Books: Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson

Ah Bill. You are so awesome, you've kind of done what we all thought was the near impossible, and made me kind of appreciate my own country a little bit (as opposed to not at all). I mean, I'm not saying that I wouldn't rather have been reading Notes from a Small Island in some wondrous faraway land and feeling mildly nostalgic about little old England, but as it was, it was still pretty nice!

In Notes from a Small Island, Bryson basically undertakes the thrilling quest of travelling around Britain (well, not Northern Ireland, but the other bits) for 7 weeks, as a little nostalgia/learning trip before moving back to the history vacuum that is America (sorry. But, you know, comparatively, yeah..). All of which, to me, sounded like a fairly unexciting premise for a book, since I live here and all, and hey, it's not that exciting! This is perhaps why the book languished on my shelves for a very very long time, since my brain went 'ooh Bryson!' when I saw it and bought it, and then the second I got it home and read the back of it, I was like 'okaaay... maybe I'll just shelve that one for a while...'

Big mistake you guys! Because Bryson, as I've seen many times before, isn't afraid to take the piss out of things he is fond of, and he's very fond of England. That means that, when he grumbles about the fact that all high streets in England (in fact, in Britain) literally look exactly the same (and oh my gosh, it's so true! Even in like Stratford Upon Avon, there's all the same shops as there are in the nearest town to me, except they look slightly more Tudor-ish. Sad but true story.) I'm right there with him, but also when he says things like how English people think that taking one chocolate when it's offered is really naughty, and go "oooh, I shouldn't, but go on then!", I'm in complete agreement with him that it's kind of adorable!

As is the case whenever I read Bryson, I forgot to write down any quotes from it, which is such a shame because it's so funny, and sometimes crochety, and just all round good stuff, and yet I can't even remember a lot of my favourite bits. I do remember his meeting 'the most boring man in the world', and when telling his readers that the man was a widower, he says, 'his wife having presumably committed suicide', which is at once SO mean, and yet SO funny! Somehow I let Bryson get away with things that I would mostly find sort of offensive or mean, and that's down to both delivery, and to the underlying love he always always shows for his subject. In Notes from a Big Country, whenever he was being mean about Americans (calling them stupid and whatnot) there was an underlying appreciation for their politeness and smileyness, and that made everything ok, and the same thing applies for this book.

I didn't think Notes from a Small Island was perfect- there was slightly too much moaning about architecture (which are probably valid arguments, it's just that I haven't seen these monstrosities he goes on about and hence don't really care about them) because it just got a bit too moany, and it was also a tiny bit dated. This is obviously nothing to do with Bryson or his writing, but it's just that things are a bit different here now than they were in 1995- the high streets all look similar because of all the empty shops on them, and I'm sure there are even more ugly buildings. Having said that, there is still the great north and south divide that Bryson talks about, Stonehenge is still something you really only need to see for about two minutes, and there's even a brand new Tory government that's probably even worse than the one in charge when Bryson was writing. And above all, British people remain remarkably similar- the apologising when someone walks into you (I genuinely do that all the time), the innate willingness to queue, and the weird national obsession with cricket (or maybe that's just my dad...). It all just made me go 'awww, Britain!' really, and just want to gather the whole country in a big hug.

So, yeah. Bryson's really done the unthinkable in getting me to appreciate my own country more, and for that I applaud him. It's even inspired me to want to visit a lot more English places (and considering that I have no money, that's probably the best holiday I can hope for anyway!) and to possibly even venture up to Scotland one day (if you only knew how much I dislike Scotland, that would freak you the hell out). But everything about Britain is in here: the good, the bad, and the indifferent, and this statement which is wholly accurate: "What a wondrous place this was - crazy as fuck, of course, but adorable to the tiniest degree." Yep. And there you go- endorsed by an English person. What more could you need to read this?!

Devouring Books: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

I like Bill Bryson. I like Bill Bryson so much, that if he wrote a book about cultural variations of vomit, I'd probably read it AND, more disturbingly, enjoy it. I don't know how he writes so well, but oh boy does he write well- or at least in a style that appeals very strongly to me. Whatever he's writing about, he takes the subject seriously but not too seriously, and always manages to find and mildly mock the absurd. But, and I think I've said this before, his slight mocking is never cruel, because it's but far displaced by the amount of reverence, respect and even love that he has for whatever subject he's chosen to write about this time. Basically, he's just amazing, and if you haven't read anything he's written, then you probably want to get onto that, pronto.

Anyway. A Short History of Nearly Everything. I put this on my TBR Pile Challenge list because I figured, hey, it's Bill Bryson, I'll definitely be able to read it! And then about a page in, I realised it was going to be all about science and, well, I freaked out a little bit. Because science... well, I was fairly good at science at school (we had these prize giving assembly things and I won the science prize like 2 years in a row, to which I say NERD) but I was only sort of functionally good- I was never passionate about science like I was about books, and hence I probably put more effort into learning the stuff because it could be learnt, as opposed to English where I more or less just read and had opinions and things- and liked it a lot better. But, when I was 16, I had never read Bill Bryson explaining science before.

Because, oh my goodness. Does he explain things well! I think a lot of it has to do with not being a scientist himself, so that he is basically on the same level as his readers when it comes to science (or at least, I'm thinking, he was when he started writing his book) and so he goes into subjects with just the right amount of depth- deep enough so they remain interesting and you really feel like you're learning things, but not so deep that you feel lost in a sea of scientific terms and lingo. Honestly I'm impressed with the style over anything about this book (and I was impressed with A LOT of things about this book) and I really feel like anyone could read it and gain a deep enough overview of the history of the universe, and probably even a lifelong love and appreciation of science. I really feel like I can- in the days since I finished it, I've been a lot more interested in the science stories in the paper, and I've been like 'oh, that must be to do with the structure of the earth' or something like that. It's really weird, but it also makes me feel really good!

So let's talk about the content shall we? A Short History of Nearly Everything, is, literally, a short history of nearly everything, or, more specifically, a short history of science as a discipline, combined with the things that this scientific explanation has more or less probably found out for kind of sure. Because, as the book goes on, you come to see that there has been so much dispute over various things (the age of the earth, how long humans have been around, how the earth formed, how the universe began etc etc) that the information we have now is really just the best guess anyone can have about any of these things. Bryson also manages to succinctly and sometimes hilariously profile prominent and important scientists, in revealing what they have discovered, and while I enjoyed the human side of things, I definitely enjoyed the wonders of the universe more- thinking about how massive the universe really is, and on a smaller scale, how wonderous humans are, and how amazing it is that we're here at all.

Because it really is. And here's the thing- when I was younger, I used to overthink things a lot (actually I still do, but mostly I just tell myself to shut up, and that helps) but I used to lay awake at night thinking about how massive the universe is, and how tiny earth is in comparison, and if a massive asteroid hit the earth then everything would just be wiped out in an instant and no one would have really mattered because everything would just be gone and so no one can do anything that's really important, and if it was important it's only important on earth and that's just the tiniest thing in the universe and so on, ad infinitum. (Does it kind of go without saying that I was basically an atheist child? Because I think believing heaven was an actual thing would have been very comforting at these times!) And I never really found a solution to this problem and just generally kept on living because, you know, what else can you do, but this book kind of made me rethink things. Because, the fact that we're here at all is sort of a miracle, and being important or not isn't the point- we just have to take all of our trillions upon trillions of atoms and do with them what we will for as long as we've got them, and, you know, enjoy it!

A note on religion- A Short History of Nearly Everything massively seems like the kind of book that would be banned in some of those insane deep south high schools you hear about because it basically doesn't even mention any kind of creationism or anything like that as a theory- everything about it is purely scientific. I can't find any evidence that it ever has been banned though, to which I say 1) good! and 2) this is surely evidence that Bryson is universally loved?! I don't know though, maybe the fact that Bryson never says 'the atoms that make up everything were definitely not created by God' is enough to make sure that no one can really object to it. Either way, yay science!

So clearly A Short History of Nearly Everything is kind of a miracle in itself. I mean, it just made me say 'yay, science!' which is fairly unlike me! What I'm gearing up to here is that basically everyone ever should read this- I thought I had no further interest in science, but it turns out that I do, and I don't think it can hurt anyone to know where we came from (probably) or to think seriously about where we may be heading. There's even a tiny bit of the book where Bryson criticises the fact that 70% of antibiotics produced are used on factory farmed animals, which, considering my recent interest in such things, made me whoop a little bit! And if the sciency things aren't enough to make you read it, then how about the funnies? Observe:

"You may not feel outstandingly robust, but if you are an average sized adult, you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7x10[to the power of]18 joules of potential energy- enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point."

"The Romans also flavoured their wine with lead, which may be part of the reason they are not the force they used to be"

I literally only wrote down these two hilarities (there are lots more, but that first one really really made me laugh) because I was too engrossed in the wonders of the universe to stop reading- I barely even came up for air for the whole few days I was reading it. So yes. It's fairly amazing. Now go and read and learn and laugh and make that your life's mission forever.

Revisiting Books: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

Have I mentioned lately how awesome I think Bill Bryson is? He really really is, and I think he's kind of a genius too. This book, which could easily have been really dry and boring (and I think already has been in countless* Shakespeare biographies) manages to me hugely entertaining because, whilst he sticks completely to the facts, and packs in a lot of information in less than 200 pages; he also never misses an opportunity to be gently mocking, or to point out the absurdities of various situations. This makes this book, for me, the perfect Shakespeare biography to read.

When I say Bryson really packs in the facts, I don't actually mean facts about Shakespeare because there are disturbingly, and annoyingly, few of those. As Bryson puts it, "We can know only what came out of his work, never what went into it." There are so many theories about every aspect of Shakespeare's life: what his relationship with his wife was like, whether or not he was bisexual, where he was during his last years, what influenced the writing of which play, and so many other things. What Bryson does is gently tear down all of these assumptions, theories and out and out fabrications, explaining why they're most likely wrong, or simply calling them out as fantasies of whoever thought them up. And all this in an amusing, but never mean, way.

So, it kind of sounds like Bryson's left with almost no actual information about Shakespeare, and that's more or less true. What we're left with is basically the barest facts about his life- when and where he was born and died, who he married and who is children were, and what he said in his will. Not massively interesting, but whilst debunking Shakespeare myths, Bryson also tells stories about other playwrights, and members of the theatre scene (essentially Shakespeare's contemporaries) as well as building up what I can only assume is a wholly accurate description of what living in London and working in the theatres would have felt like at the time. In doing this, Bryson immerses us in the world that Shakespeare inhabited, and so while we may not know what he ate for breakfast, or whether or not he liked cats, we can, thanks to Bryson, get a sense of of what it felt like to live in his world, which, I feel, is so much better.

And, of course, while we don't have all (or any of) the facts about Shakespeare, what we do have is a great body of work that, as Bryson points out, we are very lucky to have (Shakespeare's plays represent 15% of all the plays we have from that time, but many many more were written). And what can't be related to us through his writing that we could find elsewhere? Everyone else's views of Shakespeare would be just that- their own views, and since Shakespeare can't exactly be asked anything anymore, his writing has to be enough to tell us everything we need to know about him. And not to be too brutal about this, but what do we need to know about him, beyond the fact that he wrote these wonderful plays that we continue to love and appreciate today. Wanting to know anything else about the man himself really seems greedy and, to be brutally honest, unnecessary.

Basically, in its lack of facts, this book is well worth reading for the immersive experience of late 16th and early 17th century London. It doesn't pretend to know anything that isn't wholly provable, in this honesty, I think it's rare and also wonderful. It's also worth reading for Bryson's discussion of the words and phrases first written/recorded by Shakespeare, and for some fairly hilarious debunkings of some ludicrous candidates for the 'actual' writer of Shakespeare's plays. Basically, Bryson is fabulous, and I'm not sure anyone could have written better about the wonderfully elusive Shakespeare.

*Fun fact: Shakespeare first coined the word 'countless'

Devouring Books: Notes From A Big Country by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is one of those authors whose books I have collected almost unconsciously, until I've got about 6 of the buggers when all I've actually read by him is his Shakespeare biography (which I read because of Shakespeare, rather than Bryson). Because of this, I was kind of apprehensive to read any of his books, in case I didn't like one, and found that I'd been clinging onto the rest for no good reason at all, and then, you know, who elses name would I confusingly search for in charity shops when mindlessly buying books?! (I realise this entire paragraph makes me sound like a crazy person, so you can probably just ignore it).

Anyway, so I did read this book, and OMG how funny is Bryson?! I mean, I think he was relatively funny in his Shakespeare biography (which I really need to read again because I know it was really really good) but with this book I was literally laughing out loud, and let's face it, anyone who says that on the internet is usually lying. I think I was the literal target audience for the book, a collection of columns about how strange America and Americans are that were originally published in an English newspaper, and they really spoke to me, you know? Bryson is in the peculiar position of having grown up in America but also having lived in England for about 20 years, and so he is the perfect person to both appeal to English audiences, whilst also being able to comment on American idiosyncrasies and oddities.

Now, if you've ever been here before, you'll know that I love America in terms of its physical land, and the culture(s) and the cities and a lot of the lovely people, but there are a few pre-conceptions that English people hold about Americans that Bryson is very aware of, and knows exactly how to play on in the perfect way. By this, I mean that he is never really mean, or cruel, but kind of gently teasing about the American way of life as he sees it, and alongside this, he's also gently mocking of himself; which makes the mocking of anything else so much easier to take. He gets the most passionate and angry at things which he thinks are the most important (for example, in calling the Death Penalty idiotic, or preferring free healthcare to, say, free water in restaurants [which, by the way, we do have over here, it's just that you have to ask for it!]). It's about as perfect a set of columns as you can read if you're in my position, in that he makes English people seem overly enlightened about things, whilst also not being mean about Americans. In most cases, Bryson is the one who ends up kind of taking the position of the fool, which I think is the way we all prefer it.

Although these columns were originally published in the late 90s, I think there are still many things in there that are still relevant and still being talked about today, not least the whole free healthcare thing, or the reliance Americans have on their conveniences, one of Bryson's favourite topics. The most dated are the ones where he talks about 'modern' technology, where he complains about how difficult it is to set up a computer and things like that, and it's quite hard to relate to these chapters because, you know, you get your MacBook out of the box, turn it on and you're kind of ready to go... But, on the whole, they're still funny and who doesn't need a bit of laughter in their lives? I'm also not sure if this book is quite as relevant to Americans as it is to, say, me, but I think that, if someone had written a book outlining the idiosyncrasies of British life (as I'm sure someone has) I think it would still appeal to me, and I might even find it funnier than someone not from the UK. Americans, take note!

About the only thing I can't agree with Bryson with is when he says Americans aren't funny, mainly because he provides so much evidence himself to the contrary! Read this book and expect to laugh- you won't be at all disappointed. I wasn't, and I'm excited to read my other, ooh, 5 Bryson books that I've had for years and never read. Yay for planning ahead and knowing I would love him!

Note: Shout out to Alley, another funny American for recommending this book to me!