Tag: Travelling

David Attenborough – Quest in Paradise | Review

April 30, 2020
Authors A-E (By Surname)Non-Fiction

Title: Quest in Paradise

Author: David Attenborough

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 3.25/5

This is another one of the books that I picked up because I got one of my friends to pick out random numbers from my big list of books that I want to read and she landed on this one. It was a pretty good read, basically a little non-fiction memoir of Attenborough’s time travelling in search of a specific bird that he was trying to find.

Of course, it was written back in 1960 or so and that makes the language feel a little dated. My copy was also a super old edition that had a lot of yellowing and tiny print, so it didn’t really feel aesthetically pleasing. Fortunately the manuscript itself more than made up for it.

So if you’re looking for a little travel writing that will help you to escape from all of the madness that’s going on in the world, I’d say this is a pretty good call. I’m certainly glad that I read it, and I look forward to more Attenborough. Luckily, he has loads!

Learn more about Quest in Paradise.

Bill Bryson – The Road to Little Dribbling | Review

April 25, 2020
Authors A-E (By Surname)Non-Fiction

Title: The Road to Little Dribbling

Author: Bill Bryson

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 390

Rating: 4/5

This book is subtitled More Notes from a Small Island, and so as you can expect, it’s pretty much the natural and spiritual sequel to Notes from a Small Island. Arguably Bryson’s most successful book, that one charted his experiences as an American who’d moved to the United Kingdom and then spent a bunch of time travelling around it.

Since then, he’d moved to America and then presumably back to the UK again. It’s kind of hard to tell with Bryson sometimes because I don’t necessarily read his books in publication order and it’s my understanding that he’s headed backwards and forwards here and there. The good news is that I enjoy him most when he’s writing about the UK, possibly only because I live there and so it’s easy for me to picture the things that he’s writing about.

I also think that Bryson has continued to mature as a writer over the years. It’s not that his style has changed, but he has tightened it up a little bit and I think this book benefits because of it. He’s perfected the art of narrative non-fiction and has the knack of writing super engaging informational books on pretty much any topic he tries his hand at.

I will admit that from time to time I’ve found that Bryson’s humour can grate on me, but that’s okay because it wasn’t a problem here. I think it really depends upon his headspace at the time, because when he came across as petty and vindictive, he was having a pretty tough time of things while travelling across Europe.

Overall then, I enjoyed reading this one and would definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of Bryson’s travel writing and stuff. If you’re new to him, though, I’d probably go for Notes from a Small Island to begin with, although this wouldn’t be a bad place to turn to second. And so all in all, it’s a cracking book and I enjoyed it a lot, despite it being my second Bill Bryson book in as many weeks. He hasn’t started to get old yet, at least if we’re talking about my opinion of his books. Looking forward to more!

Learn more about The Road to Little Dribbling.