At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
From one of the most beloved authors of our time-more than six million copies of his books have been sold in this country alone-a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home.
"Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up."
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to "write a history of the world without leaving home." The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.
Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and he is a master at turning the seemingly isolated or mundane fact into an occasion for the most diverting exposition imaginable. His wit and sheer prose fluency make At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.
Related to At Home
Related audiobooks
Hebrews: Audio Lectures: 26 Lessons on History, Meaning, and Application Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lost Book of Moses: The Hunt for the World's Oldest Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island that Disappeared: The Lost History of the Mayflower's Sister Ship and Its Rival Puritan Colony Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hopkins Manuscript: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Constitution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Complete Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smokelore: A Short History of Barbecue in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Do You Think You Are? Behind the Headlines: 1665 The Great Plague: Episode 63 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA House Through Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Secret Life, Vol. 8 Chapter 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust Kids from the Bronx: Telling It the Way It Was: An Oral History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Landing of the Pilgrims Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mother Is a Verb: An Unconventional History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Global Wording: The Fascinating Story of the Evolution of English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heading Out to Wonderful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gifts Of The Jews: How A Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Constantine Codex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South African Folk Tales, Vol I: Animal stories from before the Settlers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Created the Middle East: A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mohawk Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Planting the World: Joseph Banks and his Collectors: An Adventurous History of Botany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Search for the King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813-1840 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Giants of Irish Literature: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Home & Garden For You
The More of Less Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Thorns and Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Win Friends And Influence People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need: Revised Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fitness Mindset: Eat for energy, Train for tension, Manage your mindset, Reap the results Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Cleaning Felt Impossible: The Whats, Whys, and Hows of Every Angle of Decluttering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daughter of the Moon Goddess: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Ends with Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership 25th Anniversary: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cleaning Sucks: An Unf*ck Your Habitat Guided Journal for Less Mess, Less Stress, and a Home You Don't Hate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Organizing From The Inside Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Declutter Like a Mother: A Guilt-Free, No-Stress Way to Transform Your Home and Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Success at Home with ADHD.: Practical Organization Strategies to Make Your Life Easier. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5High School Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway: And Other Thoughts on Moving Forward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sadie: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan: Discover the Joy of Spending Less, Sharing More, and Living Generously Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for At Home
1,690 ratings168 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not my favourite Bill Bryson book. While it is informative it is lacking the usual humour, occasionally raising a smile but never laugh out loud funny. The only reason I've marked this as a keeper is that I've kept all my other Bill Bryson books so I'll keep this one as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lots of interesting tidbits, and an easy read. I'm not a very good non-fiction reader, but this was like reading a BBC documentary. Tons of fun.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a nice little ramble through some of the history of personal lives sparked by a ramble through an old house in England. Probably more than anyone wanted to know about the sewers and bathing frequency of previous centuries in Western Europe...
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.6 An entertaining collection of loosely related facts. Many moments, but lacking an over-arching whole. Worth it for Paxton or rats in teams.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This should have been a 5 Star review of a comprehensive and enlightening history of a house bought by Bill Bryson.Instead, I am appalled by the overriding focus on the dollar sign wealth of mainly corrupt rich white men and their absurd women.There is barely any mention of America and the British empire being founded on the horrors of slavery and the blinding racism which continues into today. He mentions America's Gilded Age with NO reference to The Civil War. He praises Eli Whitney and his cotton gin with ZERO referenceto its resultant entrenchment of slavery. And so it goes throughout the book.Being kind, this is an astonishingly denier approach to ANY history.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An interesting book packed with interesting facts and stories. Bryson's device for relating all this, being a trip through his house, feels underdeveloped at times. He presents much more regarding events outside the house than within or about. He comes across as dismissive of religion while discussing Darwin and preachy about climate change, but a good read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not one of his funny travels books but a very interesting history book. Looking back on all the things which have led to what we now know as the modern home.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bill Bryson can somehow take the most mundane sounding of themes and turn it into an adventure spanning the globe with seemingly little effort. At Home: A Short History of Private Life takes readers on a magnificent journey spanning our entire existence and every facet of our lives and introduces us to people, places and events that have shaped our everyday lives whether we know it or not. Bill Bryson's great skill is in presenting facts and history that serve as a launching pad for you to think more closely about everything you encounter and to be curious about the smallest of things. Something like that cannot be praised highly enough.
It's one of those books that once you start reading it you will struggle to put it down. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you're at all familiar with Bill Bryson's other books then this is a must have. If you're at all interested in interesting and strange facts then you'll fall in love instantly with this book. In fact as soon as you're done reading this review I've written go out and buy this book as soon as possible! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A light and interesting read, but if you've already read some of the source material Bryson uses (in my case Judith Flanders and Mark Girouard in particular and also Liza Picard who herself is a pop history writer) you quickly realise how much he "borrows" wholesale, even to the point of using the same quotes as the original authors. This book is pure pop history. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but if you're looking for more substantial information about the subject matter you should go straight to the extensive and excellent bibliography at the end.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Another subtitle for this book could be EXCESS AND DISTRESS. A lot of the tidbits of information are jumbled together and they largely fall into the category of very rich people spending an awful lot of money on something during history, or, very disgusting or dirty or deathly habits of people through history. I really liked the beginning of the book when Bill Bryson talks about the first homes. But then he went into loops and suddenly the book was no longer well-structured and organized. It seemed that every little random fact or anecdote, however far away from the story of the homes, sneaked its way into this book. I couldn't stay focused in my listening of this book. It was this rich guy, and that poor engineer, and so and on. And despite listening to at least 80% of the book it feels I really know very little about the history of our homes and our home objects. I know more about the construction of the Eiffel tower and how to build ponds in England, and of course, the sewer system of London. It is a very strange book, and a jumble of facts. Now if you like that kind of book, great. Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and his book about scientific history are so much better. Go for them instead.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This reminded me of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I really loved. I feel like I have a lot to learn from social/cultural history and was really excited about this book, but I think I should have actually read it instead of listening to the audiobook. Bryson read it himself (with his vaguely British-American ambiguous accent) and it was a little too fast for all the densely-packed anecdotes and details. I wish I could have paced my own reading, so I could go back and re-read so many little parts. There isn't really a strong narrative, just a huge collection of associated histories affiliated with the chapter's topic, and if you're not paying attention you may miss 5 tidbits.
I learned many interesting facts explaining why western culture developed into what it is today, and how it strange it has been in the past. I think this book will end up on my reading list again in the future, and I hope I can better digest and retain it. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5wide ranging, hugely interesting, too long, love his sense of the ironic, absurd, unexpected or amazing trivia
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a fun, fascinating book about our modern age and how it got here - and got into our homes.Bryson uses his own English country home as a framework for exploring innovations and history - and even words - in our everyday lives. From the food in your kitchen to sex and health in your bedroom to entertaining in the drawing room, Bryson explores the innovations and innovators. The framework breaks down here and there - the attic for a look at science? - but on the whole, it's an entertaining series of anecdotes and ah-ha moments.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating read on how the Age of Discovery transformed our daily lives in unexpected ways, and about the people who transformed it. Also a reminder of how grim it used to be, even around 150 years ago.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's not often that i read a large non-fiction book and don't skim a little, or sometimes a lot! Not so with this fact filled, entertaining history of everyday domestic living. From the history of hygiene to fashion trends it's chock full of tantalizing trivia.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It may be a short history, but it is an intensive one. Bryson uses the rooms of his home, an old English rectory, to contemplate every imaginable aspect of the modern life - all those things we now consider indispensable. It was much denser and more varied than I had thought it would be.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bill Bryson uses his nineteenth century house, a former rectory, as a springboard for discussing all manner of tangentially-related domestic inventions and situations. He specializes in resurrecting forgotten architects and inventors, most of whom died in poverty and obscurity after designing influential houses or inventing essential household items. While some readers will admire Bryson's British wit and wide-ranging research, for me, it was all a bit too much. If I hadn't had to finish it for a book club, I probably wouldn't have made it to the end.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An interesting read and fun, though frustrating from a writing standpoint. Were it not for Bill Bryson already being a brand author, this book would never have seen the light of day (in my opinion).
The structure, while engaging, is very very loose and he meanders from one trivia point to the next. It's less his touting world history as shown through his house and its rooms. It's more "Say, here's this room, and it reminds me of a story...did you know...."
Thus, this is a fun read if you only looking for cocktail party level details and trivia on history.
Still, if you're not a student of history or technology, this might serve as a great introduction. In fact, I'd recommend this as a way to get recalcitrant students interested in history by showing how seemingly disparate facts and details link more things together than they'd ever realize. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent, easy to read book, and Bryson is an excellent audiobook narrator. I haven't been particularly fond of Bryson's books before but I gave this a shot based on a friend's recommendation and it was GREAT!. Bryson gives tidbits of history about each room in a home and some of "yard" history too, and explained the meaning of the room's/yard's name. It got a little long, with extra trivia that got a little old, but that would be harsh to ding a book for doing *more* of what was great in the beginning. Even if you aren't a Bryson fan, if you lost history, and in particular cultural history (why is it called a "hall"? wow! I never knew), try this book. Downright fun to read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was more than a little disappointed by how Anglo-American centric the history of the home apparently is, but it's still a Bill Bryson book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thoroughly enjoyable.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bill Bryson's this book, unlike his other best seller "Brief History of Nearly Everything", isn't as good a page turner as I had imagined it to begin with. In fact, I dropped reading this book after reading first fifty pages, twice, before I decided to pursue with more thoroughness. With book title and cover picture, I had expected this to be history of household object but it actually turned out to history of living and living things and living activities.This subject is inherently dry, though to his credit, Bill Bryson has done a lot to make even this interesting. As his style is, he created this book as compilation of informative historical tit bits from many other books. His range of topics is impressive: food, food preparation, food preservation, cutlery, nutrition, building material, architecture, bed, washing, house pests (the idea, that someone even thought of this!), staircase, electricity, furniture, telephone, gardening, childhood, bereavement, etc. Book has some humour, but that is not running quality.I have only two complaints of the books. First, a minor, is that chapters are not indicative of content and content could be better organized. Chapters are named on rooms of house, but really talk about various things with no or little connection with the room in consideration. For example, chapter on 'Cellar' talks about history of building material and chapter on oddly named 'Plum' room talks about architecture. In fact, three chapters talk about architecture. Because of multiple threads intervening at multiple places, history goes back and forth in narrative and it becomes difficult to hold on to key dates, though probably this is okay too since we couldn't actually keep track as there are many-many events and people mentioned. Second, a major complaint, is that 80% of book is history of houses in England from 1750-1950, while 20% is same in USA. Rest of world and rest of time period is completely ignored, which was really sad actually.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bryson takes a look the home through the early ages. Fascinating read with many interesting facts, especially the meanings of words we use every day. One of his best works.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As always Bryson is entertaining, informative, enjoyable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bill Bryson's look at the history of the home reveals a so many things -- a long term view of that most intimate place, a new angle on history, and a multitude of facts, stories, and really interesting tidbits. He ranges over swathes of the history of things, much of it obscure and some of it startling. Like most Bryson books, it is a delightful read, luring you on to take in just one more chapter.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a well researched well written about a house. Not sure it is a book about a specific person or family but lots and lots of facts and people
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5very fun, very readable, but a bit random. No question I enjoyed it, but I love random earthy/domestic history. But I was wanting a bit more depth and relevance.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a wonderful book to listen to on my drives to and from work. Not only was it immensely fascinating, but Bill Bryson himself was very entertaining. I highly suggest it!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I am probably missing a lot of interesting information and important historical facts about everyday living by not finishing this book, but it was just too much. I liked the book and skipped around to different parts, but couldn't read it all the way thru.