ChatterBank3 mins ago
Non Fiction Recommendations
18 Answers
Can anyone recommend any interesting biographies/autobiogs, travelogues etc. Or any other interesting non fiction please as I need to store up some holiday reading.
Answers
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'English Journey' by J B Priestley is well worth a read.
Reviewed here:
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Available on Amazon here
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Reviewed here:
http://
Available on Amazon here
https:/
I also enjoyed 'To The Baltic With Bob' by Griff Rhys Jones:
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https:/
Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors.
He has written a number of "travel" books (I use the term loosely as he covers all sorts of topics in his travel books).
He has also written other books (one about Shakespeare, another about the year 1927 and so on).
He is also a laugh out loud author and I have lost track of the number of times I have roared out laughing in his books.
He is also the sort of person who makes you want to rush to the internet and check up on some fact or other that he has written about but you cant believe it.
For example in one of his books he talks about a town in the USA called Centralia where a coal seam caught fire over 50 years ago and it is STILL burning under the town. Most of the people have left but a few still hang one.
I rushed to the computer to check it was true, and it is, you can read about it here
https:/
He also wrote a book called The Short History of Nearly Everything where he tries to look at all the things related to science and life on earth (and in the universe).
It sounds heavy but due to his writing style it is wonderful book, and again he sticks in all sorts of amazing facts that make you want to rush to the computer to see if they are true.
Due to the popularity of his books you can pick many of them up in charity shops for 50p or so.
I wont suggest any particular book as I enjoyed reading them all, so just take your pick.
You can see a list of his books here
https:/
And here is his Shakespeare book
https:/
He has written a number of "travel" books (I use the term loosely as he covers all sorts of topics in his travel books).
He has also written other books (one about Shakespeare, another about the year 1927 and so on).
He is also a laugh out loud author and I have lost track of the number of times I have roared out laughing in his books.
He is also the sort of person who makes you want to rush to the internet and check up on some fact or other that he has written about but you cant believe it.
For example in one of his books he talks about a town in the USA called Centralia where a coal seam caught fire over 50 years ago and it is STILL burning under the town. Most of the people have left but a few still hang one.
I rushed to the computer to check it was true, and it is, you can read about it here
https:/
He also wrote a book called The Short History of Nearly Everything where he tries to look at all the things related to science and life on earth (and in the universe).
It sounds heavy but due to his writing style it is wonderful book, and again he sticks in all sorts of amazing facts that make you want to rush to the computer to see if they are true.
Due to the popularity of his books you can pick many of them up in charity shops for 50p or so.
I wont suggest any particular book as I enjoyed reading them all, so just take your pick.
You can see a list of his books here
https:/
And here is his Shakespeare book
https:/
Mark Wallington's books are always worth a read.
Try 'The Uke of Wallington', 'The Auto Biography' and 'The Day Job: Adventures of a Jobbing Gardener'.
https:/
https:/
https:/
Try 'The Uke of Wallington', 'The Auto Biography' and 'The Day Job: Adventures of a Jobbing Gardener'.
https:/
https:/
https:/
>>>>I especially enjoyed Down Under
I love the opening of that book. He says (from memory)
"As I was flying in to Australia I realised YET AGAIN that I had forgotten who the Australian Prime Minister is. I am always doing that. I find out who he is, then almost instantly forget. I feel there should be at least ONE person outside Australia who knows who the Australian Prime Minister is."
He then goes on to tell the story of how Australia LOST a Prime Minister.
The current Australian Prime Minister went swimming off a beach in Australia, was washed out to sea, and never seen again.
It is "facts" like that on Bryson's books that make me want to find out if it is true (and it was).
He was Harold Holt
https:/
I love the opening of that book. He says (from memory)
"As I was flying in to Australia I realised YET AGAIN that I had forgotten who the Australian Prime Minister is. I am always doing that. I find out who he is, then almost instantly forget. I feel there should be at least ONE person outside Australia who knows who the Australian Prime Minister is."
He then goes on to tell the story of how Australia LOST a Prime Minister.
The current Australian Prime Minister went swimming off a beach in Australia, was washed out to sea, and never seen again.
It is "facts" like that on Bryson's books that make me want to find out if it is true (and it was).
He was Harold Holt
https:/
Thanks for the suggestions. I have read David Niven and pretty much all of Bill Bryson's books. I quite like the look of the jobbing gardener one. I have just picked up a couple of paperbacks from the library but I`ll have a look at the local charity shop and second hand on the internet (don't like paying full price for books) then I can leave them in the hotel library and not have to bring them home again. I`ll have a look at the other suggestions. Thanks again
Betty MacDonald.
Not always easy to get a hold of but I have been reading and re-reading her books for over fifty years, (my father introduced me to them when I was about 12).
Her most famous one is ‘The Egg and I’. (Don’t let the title put you off.)
She and her husband start a chicken farm in the north west states of America. Extremely funny and wonderful descriptions of what life was like in the twenties and thirties in the US.
The chapter on the food they had access leaves you drooling at the mouth.
They made a film of this book with I think Claudette Colbert and Fred McMurray, but not a patch on the book.
About five other books follow, but this one is supreme.
Give it a shot.
Not always easy to get a hold of but I have been reading and re-reading her books for over fifty years, (my father introduced me to them when I was about 12).
Her most famous one is ‘The Egg and I’. (Don’t let the title put you off.)
She and her husband start a chicken farm in the north west states of America. Extremely funny and wonderful descriptions of what life was like in the twenties and thirties in the US.
The chapter on the food they had access leaves you drooling at the mouth.
They made a film of this book with I think Claudette Colbert and Fred McMurray, but not a patch on the book.
About five other books follow, but this one is supreme.
Give it a shot.
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