TBR Pile #8 – The Road to Little Dribbling

Medium – Book

About the Book – The Road to Little Dribbling picks up twenty years or so after the writing of ‘Notes from a Small Island’. In it, Bill Bryson makes the journey from South of the British Isles to the North, stopping at a number of different cities and landmarks on the way. He describes the book as a ‘love letter’ to the UK, looking at how it has changed and is changing in the twenty-first century, through the eyes of a man born in the USA. He tells stories of his times and travels through the UK as well as describing the people he meets and his views on the changes in society.

My Thoughts – This is the third time I’ve picked up The Road to Little Dribbling and tried to read it. The first time, I got four chapters in, the second time six chapters in, and this time, eight chapters in – you think I would have learned my lesson! The challenge I am setting myself with my TBR pile is that if I get past page 20, then I have to keep going until at least the half way point before giving up – and this is what I have done with the book this time! I have read and thoroughly enjoyed Notes from a Small Island – I found it refreshing and interesting, as Bryson travelled through different parts of the UK and discovered interesting information and discussed his thoughts about it. However, this book – well, I found it a bit ‘gammon-y’.

I have no doubt that Bryson likes the UK – he has made it his home and obviously enjoys his time here. His descriptions of the scenery and of London are lovely and he obviously has a great love for the natural world and the countryside, which I admire and agree with. However, I found other bits of the book just an extended moan. He moans about shops, the middle class, holidaymakers, traffic, shopkeepers, waiters and waitresses, dog walkers, Tesco and McDonald’s. Now, I might not be a fan of some of those things but the near-constant negativity left me cold. I suspect that I am not the target demographic for this book, which is a shame as I’ve really enjoyed some of Bryson’s other work.