Bücher von Bill Bryson

The author describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This title is about his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us.

In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world.

It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly.

In 1995, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite; a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy; place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey and Shellow Bowells; people who said 'Mustn't grumble', and 'Ooh lovely' at the sight of a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits; and Gardeners' Question Time. Notes from a Small Island was a huge number-one bestseller when it was first published, and has become the nation's most loved book about Britain, going on to sell over two million copies.

Troublesome Words is playful and riddlesome guide to the English language from the bestselling author of Notes from a Small Island and A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill BrysonWhat is the difference between mean and median, blatant and flagrant, flout and flaunt? Is it whodunnit or whodunit? Do you know? Are you sure?With Troublesome Words, journalist and bestselling travel-writer Bill Bryson gives us a clear, concise and entertaining guide to the problems of English usage and spelling that has been an indispensable companion to those who work with the written word for over twenty years. So if you want to discover whether you should care about split infinitives, are cursed with an uncontrollable outbreak of commas or were wondering if that newsreader was right to say 'an historic day', this superb book is the place to find out.

The author has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, the author brings his brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life.

Presenting a tour of English from its mongrel origins to its status as the world's most-spoken tongue; its apparent simplicity to its deceptive complexity; its vibrant swearing to its uncertain spelling and pronunciation, this book covers curious eccentricities that make it as maddening to learn and as flexible to use.

Bill Bryson's first travel book, The Lost Continent, was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither Here nor There he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia. Fluent in, oh, at least one language, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before. Whether braving the homicidal motorists of Paris, being robbed by gypsies in Florence, attempting not to order tripe and eyeballs in a German restaurant or window-shopping in the sex shops of the Reeperbahn, Bryson takes in the sights, dissects the culture and illuminates each place and person with his hilariously caustic observations. He even goes to Liechtenstein.

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William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time."

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a basement room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed. Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness. His Shakespeare is like no one else's-the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivalled in our time.

Vom Autor des Weltbestsellers »Reif für die Insel«Vor über dreißig Jahren beschloss der Amerikaner Bill Bryson, England zu seiner Wahlheimat zu machen und für einige Jahre dort zu leben. Damals brach er auf zu einer großen Erkundungsreise quer über die britische Insel. Inzwischen ist er ein alter Hase, was die Eigentümlichkeiten der Engländer betrifft, aber dennoch entdeckt er immer wieder Neues, was ihn fasziniert und amüsiert. Kein Wunder also, dass es ihn reizt, diese Insel erneut ausgiebig zu bereisen. Von Bognor Regis bis Cape Wrath, vom englischen Teehaus bis zum schottischen Pub, von der kleinsten Absteige bis zum noblen Hotel, Bryson lässt nichts aus und beantwortet zahlreiche Fragen. Wie heißt der Big Ben eigentlich wirklich? Wer war Mr. Everest? Warum verstehen sich Amerikaner und Engländer nur bedingt? Bill Bryson will noch einmal wissen, was dieses Land so liebenswert macht, und begibt sich auf den Weg - schließlich ist er wieder reif für die Insel!

Die Welt verstehen, ohne auch nur einen Fuß vor die Haustür zu setzen.Was bleibt nach der "Geschichte von fast allem" eigentlich noch zu schreiben? Die Geschichte von fast allem anderen, natürlich. Bill Bryson hat sich daher in seinen vier Wänden umgesehen und sich gefragt: Warum leben wir eigentlich, wie wir leben? Warum stehen ausgerechnet Salz und Pfeffer auf dem Tisch, und weshalb hat unsere Gabel vier Zinken? Aber es bleibt nicht bei Geschichten von Bett, Sofa und Küchenherd. Die Geschichte des Heims ist auch immer eine der großen Entdeckungen und Abenteuer: ohne die Weltausstellung in London gäbe es womöglich kein Wasserklosett und ohne die großen Entdecker weder Kaffee noch Tee oder Kakao zum Frühstück. Bill Bryson zeigt uns unser Heim, wie wir es noch nie gesehen haben. Und wir verstehen ein wenig mehr, warum es so ist, wie es ist.

Was ist das für ein Land, in dem sich fliegende Füchse tummeln und Schweinefußnasenbeutler einst ihr Unwesen trieben? In seinem ebenso amüsanten wie informativen Streifzug durch ein unbekanntes Australien erzählt Bill Bryson von den historischen Hintergründen der Entdeckung dieses faszinierenden Kontinents - und hält den Leser mit seinem scharfen Blick für alles Skurrile und Ungewöhnliche in Atem.

Bill Bryson will es seinen gehfaulen Landsleuten zeigen: > Ein Reisebericht der etwas anderen Art - humorvoll, selbstironisch und mit einem scharfen Blick für die Marotten von Menschen und Bären!