Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
"Long ago when I was a junior high school student in America, I remember being taught by a biology teacher that all the chemicals that make up the human body could be bought in a hardware store for $5 or something like that." Who wouldn't want to know more? Bill Bryson in his latest masterpiece of observation and humour goes on to tell us about a Conference in Cambridge which calculated all the costs of elements necessary to build the actor Benedict Cumberbatch (rather more than $5 but enticingly small). Only then does he tell us about the elements themselves. How I wish any of the Science masters at my school would have adopted such a 'user-friendly' approach! Well it matters not, it's never to late to learn (which really must be Bill's own motto). I enjoyed very much finding out about every aspect of the body, covered it has to be said with no little depth but laced with humour and wonderment all the way through. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't find this book a delight. In the middle of reading it, I went to look at what other Bryson books were on my shelves and I picked up 'The Road To Little Dribbling : More Notes From A Small Island'. I wanted to see if it contained anything on the places we had just visited in Lancashire and Cheshire. It did. The problem was I was hooked. If there is a better humorist in telling a story, well he's unknown to me. I really enjoyed Bryson's first book on the British Isles which was told from the point of view of a stranger made welcome in a land which he doesn't really understand, but which he would like to know a lot better. Not only was it hilarious it told a lot of home truths. Things we don't want to know or acknowledge without some feeling of shame. Good job that on the whole Bryson appreciates our island and thinks that you couldn't find a better place to live. 'The Road To Little Dribbling' is more of the same, different places on the whole, looking at them for what they are, but always with an eye to a funny story or the revealing of some quirky feature. A bit less tolerant of our failings, now that he is a British citizen himself, but also less forgiving of his own faults which he is glad to acknowledge. I enjoyed my second reading enormously. So should you.
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August 2023
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