At Home - Books Babb.no

Hardcover, 497 pages

English language

Published Jan. 6, 2010 by Doubleday.

ISBN:: 978-0-7679-1938-8
OCLC Number:: 503596086

“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 …

“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. (front flap)

26 editions

Rudi reviewed At home by Bill Bryson

Review of 'At home' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Where Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything" leads you through all the big questions about the origins of our worlds (and the people who made the discoveries), this book tries to examine the history of every day life. It's stuffed full of fantastic anecdotes, interesting fun facts and a perspective of history that's new to most of us. More than anything, it highlights how many people has played a big part in shaping our world, and that small inventions and ideas can have big consqeunces in the life of many.

What Bill Bryson did really well in "Short History..." was to tie together stories that on the surface are not that related, and give the a flow that was very easy to follow as a reader. Bryson is a great story teller. In this book the gimmick is that he uses his own house as the basis and structure of …

Where Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything" leads you through all the big questions about the origins of our worlds (and the people who made the discoveries), this book tries to examine the history of every day life. It's stuffed full of fantastic anecdotes, interesting fun facts and a perspective of history that's new to most of us. More than anything, it highlights how many people has played a big part in shaping our world, and that small inventions and ideas can have big consqeunces in the life of many.

What Bill Bryson did really well in "Short History..." was to tie together stories that on the surface are not that related, and give the a flow that was very easy to follow as a reader. Bryson is a great story teller. In this book the gimmick is that he uses his own house as the basis and structure of the book. This does not really work, and I feel that it to some degree ruined the flow of the book. There's also several sections where I found myself losing interest in the stories told. This is not suprising in such a big book with so many different stories, but it never happened in "Short History...". Perhaps it's easier to grab my attention with the people who discovered how the world worked, than the people who discovered how asymmetrical architecture should work?

And as always with these kind of books: I wish I remembered even a percent of what I read. It's super interesting, but nothing sticks. Oh well.

Andreas H.O.

rated it

Jan. 1, 2014

Subjects

Dwellings -- Psychological aspects
Dwellings -- Environmental aspects
Rooms -- Psychological aspects
Rooms -- Environmental aspects