The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain Hardcover – January 19, 2016

I have laughed like a mad woman reading this book. I had to wipe tears from my face and look around to see who was watching. Mr Bryson puts into words what I feel about the small everyday happenings we all experience. Certainly makes me want to return to England and track down my pen pal from grade school.Memories.... She talked about David Bowie and the Beatles way before they were popular here in the states.... Read this book!

"The Road to Little Dribbling" is Bill Bryson's sequel to "Notes from a Small Island". Bill travels from one end of the UK to the other and visits many of the seaports and small villages he missed during his previous excursion. Bryson writes in his typical breezy, entertaining, witty, and humorous style. The author had me laughing out loud constantly throughout his work and his words capture the great beauty and tranquility of the British countryside. I would have liked more coverage of Scotland, as it is only mentioned in the final few pages.Although I concur with most of his assessments of the British people, culture, and landscape, I have to say that the man truly has his head up his "arse" on the immigration issue. Earth to Bill, most of the immigrants, legal and illegal, that have been pouring into the UK for the last twenty years, are not well educated, employable, White, anglophiles who revere, respect, and contribute to the betterment of British society. If anything, many of them to tend to be young men of military age who despise all Western culture and literally piss on the monuments Bryson writes so eloquently about. Anyone who has visited London, in the last ten years, know this. And perhaps Mr. Bill does too. He's just afraid to write honestly about it living in George Orwell's England. Nowadays, you never know when the thought police are going to come knocking on your door for telling the Truth.Bryson's an exceptional writer, but like most liberals he's completely out of touch with reality on politics.

I have traveled to the UK annually to visit family for over 30 years. The comments this author/book makes are both slightly sarcastic and valid -- from an American's viewpoint. He describes places that 'tours' will NEVR take you -- but he describes places that are valid and real. It's a good read!

I have read almost all of Bill Bryson's books and enjoyed them very much, but this one was a disappointment. While there were interesting historical stories about various sites, too much of it was rather repetitious, nice little town, little shops, and where the closest pub is, stumbling back to his hotel after an evening of eating and drinking, and every trail he walked was wonderful with spectacular scenery. Towards the end of the book, I started skimming over the repetitious parts and just read the historical story bits.I also did not like him making negative political references about US political figures which had nothing to do with the subject. There was also a lot of US bashing and how superior England is to the US. I have lived in England and have visited it dozens of times over the years and love England, its scenery, picturesque towns, etc. but I did not like the negative comments about the states, some of the subjects I was very familiar with, not telling the whole story and leaving out pertinent information to make the US look stupid. He mentions in the book that after living in England for 40 years, he just got his UK citizenship but retained his US citizenship also. I wonder why since the UK is far superior in his eyes. This book seemed like he needed something to write but did not have enough material. Should have left well enough alone and go quietly into retirement. It was a real snooze-fest.

I had always compared Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island," which utterly delighted me and was one of the most hilarious and captivating books I've ever read, to Paul Thereoux's "The Kingdom by the Sea," which makes Britain out to be the most unfortunate and horrible place on the entire planet.Into my comparison comes the new "The Road to Little Dribbling." Or, perhaps, I should not say new. Although I had it set for pre-order on my Kindle for some time and read it pretty much immediately after it downloaded, it has, apparently, been out for some months in other formats, because Bryson has antiquated publishers. I was one of the people who clicked on (perhaps multiple times) the tell the publisher you want to read this on Kindle link for "Notes." So wake up, publishers -- perhaps you would have had more serious fans reviewing the book sooner if you had released it at the same time for ebooks as you did for dead tree books.Anyway. As I read this, I became aware in a way that I had not while reading "Notes," that it is possible that the Thereoux of his time and the Bryson of "Little Dribbling" were equally crotchety old men, both finding reasons to be irritated by incompetent and/or stupid people they met along their travels. But even if they were, Thereoux is either one of the most humorless writers of all time, or imbued with such a dry sarcasm that I -- who feel myself to have a pretty high sarcasm meter -- picked up on absolutely none of it. Also, while Bryson seems to have met with an equal mix of incompetent/stupid people, he also met with a reasonable range of coherent/interesting/clever ones, in the course of "Little Dribbling."Also, any increased crochetiness was basically forgiven because this is, hands-down, the book I have laughed out loud reading more than any other, as I tore through it in the course of two days. I travel to Britain every year, so perhaps the jokes and the subtle humor are closer to home for me, but they were absolutely spot-on, and absolutely hilarious.I love reading when Bryson writes about Britain because I think he feels the same way I do about the place -- that it is filled with idiosyncratic but lovely people, and that it has so much amazingly beautiful landscape that needs to be preserved. It is a place you love wholeheartedly, while simultaneously understanding that it is, in many ways, ridiculous.I gather some people were unhappy about the amount of time spent on Scotland and Wales. Don't get me wrong, Bryson could probably do a whole book on Scotland or Wales and I would find it endlessly amusing, BUT, what he generally did was stick to a fair amount of well-known tourist routes and locales, which does differ from "Notes." Frankly, because I had just been to a lot of these places, I found it more interesting. I didn't 100% agree with him all of the time, but I appreciated his perspective.And the fundamental theme of his book, and what I have felt is the fundamental theme of Britain, is that there is just too damn much to see in any one visit, or any one route. So much has happened there, and there are so many preserved sites, and so many museums, that I go there every year for 2.5 weeks, and still have not seen a fraction of what I want to see. So from personal experience, I can understand if he started in the south and encountered most of a book's worth of material before hitting Yorkshire.I will say that the title, while amusing and wholly British, had no context within the actual book, so far as I remember. I got to the acknowledgements and there was some note about it, and I was like, "wait, that was never actually mentioned in the text." However, this was so amusing, and I was so eager to see Bryson's writing about Britain again, that I probably would have pre-ordered it even if the title was "Bugger Bognor Regis."

I loved it. Great author with a great sense of humour. Loved all his books.

I love Bill Bryson. He's lived in the UK since the 70s but his observations of this island and its people from the perspective of a native American is, to my mind, accurate and with the humour to go with it so we are never insulted. I recognise everything he says. It was 'laugh out loud' most of the time and I loved it. A jolly good read so please try it.

Very funny, very astute, critical without being unkind (mostly!)

Another Bryson book I didn’t want to end. Cape Wrath on my bucket list! Heading to UK soon and will go to lots of these places.

Prima cosa; nulla può essere all'altezza di 'Notes from a Little Island'. Ma questo libro mi ha regalato ore di ridacchiate, risolini e grasse risate in puro stile Bryson. Come tutti noi quando invecchiamo, anche Bill non può sfuggire ai vizi dell'età, ovvero polemiche, brontolii e una tendenza a essere stizzoso. Ma almeno lui lo riconosce e ci ride sopra. Non posso essere sempre d'accordo con lui (davvero, essere così sprezzante di Tintagel mi ha strappato un grido di angoscia), ma i luoghi che lui racconta prendono vita con le sue parole. Se potete leggere l'edizione originale ve la consiglio caldamente, è senz'altro più divertente e grintosa. Consigliato