Customer Reviews
The yardstick - By: Gary Finnegan, 02 Jul 2008 
This is one of Bryson's very best & cements his place as the don of travel writing.
The quality & density of his writing, brimming as it is with curious facts & gags, make him simply unbeatable when it comes to this kind of travelogue.
Bryson's greatest skill is that he makes us want to follow him around often-dull & familiar corners of Britain, Europe, Australia & America.
If you're not a fan of the genre, steer clear. But if you like his style this is a must-have.
For those looking for a starting point for this type of travel book, this is as good a place to start as any.
better than expected read - By: White Rose, 16 Jun 2008 
Having read the reviews, mostly anti - I finished reading this book & was pleasantly surprised. It seems to me that Bill Bryson was writing about his impressions, feelings, emotions, calll it what you will, as he toured this island of ours, & it came over as a love/hate relationship until the end, when he makes it quite clear he loves the place & will be back. I tuned in to his kind of off beat humour quite early & loved it. Definitely a lot of snorts of laughter & a lot of 'yes, recognise that' too.
An enjoyable read.
One arduous read. - By: Toudon Wagstaff, 24 Jan 2008 
Whilst this is the first Bryson book I've finished (not the first of his I've attempted to read) it'll almost certainly be the last. I just don't get this guys popularity (a case of "The King's New Clothes" perhaps). It would've been much better if he'd integrated more with people he met on his travels & wrote about their thoughts rather than his own & his transparent exageration of mundane happenings in an effort towards being comical generallly fell far short of the mark for me. He'd also benefit from occasionallly choosing not to stay in accomodation he initiallly doesn't like the look of, but then this would leave him something short of to moan about. Disappointing.
Funny - By: P. Tilley, 06 Jan 2008 I'm reallly enjoying reading this book. A couple of nights ago I was in bed reading Chapter 11 (the rainy night in Weston-Super-Mare) & laughed so hard I was in pain. I kept letting out the occasional gasp for air as the tears rolled. I had to keep the noise down as my girlfriend was asleep but the part where he tries to remember the name of the kick-boxing arcade game was too much & I've been chuckling about it for the past few days. A very enjoyable read.
Rants about a Small Island - By: Mr. Ian D. Jamieson, 06 Jan 2008 This was the fifth Bryson book that I have read & by far the most disappointing. The appeal of the other books of his that I've read (Short History, Thunderbolt, Mother Tongue, Walk in the Woods) is that they had provided a dose of iteresting trivia in an easy to read format (although I've seldom found them "laugh-out-loud funny" as many a reviewer seems to have done.) Smalll Island is just about as pointless a book as you could imagine. A journey around some random places in Britain with little in the way of description, history, geography, dialogue with locals or anything else. Instead we're treated to the sorts of rants that any person travelling on their own for eight weeks might have. He hates big dogs, people with interests that he doesn't share, anyone who makes an innocent mistake, architecture, etc. etc. etc. Almost anyone (with two months holiday & a limitless budget) could have written this book but I would suggest that most would have done it better.
