Name: Christian Beck's review of At Home by Bill Bryson
Item: At Home
Rating: 2
Author: Christian Beck

Bill Bryson

From one of the most beloved authors of our time—more than six million copies of his books have been sold in this country alone—a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home. “Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture. Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and he is a master at turning the seemingly isolated or mundane fact into an occasion for the most diverting exposition imaginable. His wit and sheer prose fluency make At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.

A Short History of Private Life

At Home

Christian Beck

Patrick Book

Would be 4.5 if I could. I feel like I just learned everything there is to know and had a great time doing it.

Tuago

It's a book full of interesting stories but that seem to have little to do with premise of the book. It's has a very disorganized structure and it mostly focus on Victorian times in England.

Kshitij Bantupalli

A fun book to read. Its stuff you never would think you needed to know till you read about it and it amazes you.

Dana Kraft

I had to put this down after 100 pages or so b/c it was just so boring - nowhere near the standard of Bill Bryson's previous books. Two main problems: First, while the subject matter in general interests me - history of the home and how social changes have affected the home, this thing wanders way too far afield of that subject - and not in a keep-it-interesting way. Second, it is Britain-centric almost to the exclusion of anything else. They should append the words "...in Britian" to the end of the title.

If you're looking for a history of the home, I'd recommend "Home" by Witold Rybczynski. It's a straightforward non-fiction book, but is much more engaging than this one was.

Bec Taylor

For an etymology nynpho like me, this book was pure heaven! The perfect blend of humour and fact, a sensational read.

Michael Hessling

Victoria Hill

Moffatt Clarke

Pratik M

Nina

Nellwyn Lampert

Tobias V. Langhoff

In At Home, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live. Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote a lot more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - eating, sleeping and merely endeavouring to get more comfortable. And that most of the key discoveries for humankind can be found in the very fabric of the houses in which we live.This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, wandering from room to room considering how the ordinary things in life came to be. Along the way he did a prodigious amount of research on the history of anything and everything, from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets; and on the brilliant, creative and often eccentric minds behind them. And he discovered that, although there may seem to be nothing as unremarkable as our domestic lives, there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement - and even a little danger - lurking in the corners of every home.

David Furnes

At home

Tom Ryke

Jeffrey Mack

With his signature wit, charm, and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows, and every item of furniture. Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and his sheer prose fluency makes At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.
(back cover)

Christian Beck &
At Home by Bill Bryson

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Christian Beck &
At Home by Bill Bryson