Idgie Says:
This is Bill's 9th travel book and after a few years without one fresh off the press it was wonderful to see this new release. I immediately begged for a review copy. Bill has been dabbling in other genres in the last few years and while he is wonderful in whatever he does, his travel books have always been my favorite.
He has the wonderful talent for writing about locations he's traveling to, telling interesting bits and factoids of history of that particular place and then - bam! - out of the blue he smashes someone or some incident with a sarcastic bat to the head you do not see coming. All of this makes his books immensely enjoyable and at times quite invigorating. I almost always find myself laughing out loud in spots.
This latest book shows Bill mellowing a bit. Though this is his lengthiest travel book by 100 pages or so, it is a calmer one. The historical facts are still there, the travel and sites to see or avoid are still there and there is still sarcasm, but for the most part a gentler form of it than seen in the other books. I have to say that I love the book, but I miss the biting off of the heads.
I keep his books on my nightstand for when I need just a chapter or two before bed and I believe I can honestly say I've read all of them at least 5 times each. I have no doubt this book will experience the same amount of use.
Doubleday
January 19, 2016
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About The Road to Little Dribbling
A loving and hilarious—if occasionally
spiky—valentine to Bill Bryson’s adopted country, Great Britain. Prepare
for total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter.Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.
Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis in the south to Cape Wrath in the north, by way of places few travelers ever get to at all, Bryson rediscovers the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly singular country that he both celebrates and, when called for, twits. With his matchless instinct for the funniest and quirkiest and his unerring eye for the idiotic, the bewildering, the appealing, and the ridiculous, he offers acute and perceptive insights into all that is best and worst about Britain today.
Nothing is more entertaining than Bill Bryson on the road—and on a tear. The Road to Little Dribbling reaffirms his stature as a master of the travel narrative—and a really, really funny guy.