Talk:Bill Bryson
From Academic Kids
I'm not sure, but I believe I'm a Stranger Here Myself and Notes From a Big Country are corresponding US/UK editions. I also found reference to a book by Bryson called Bizarre World but could find no further detail. Cheers.
I've briefly researched "Bizarre World," and it seems the book was written not by the Bill Bryson of "Mother Tongue" fame, but by another author altogether. As such, I've removed the reference. Martschink
Bryson's book Mother Tongue has been heavily criticised due to factual errors on nearly every page, tonnes of urban myths (such as the Eskimo vocabulary myth, and the "If English is good enough for Jesus..." line), and misunderstandings of IE language development. Check out the reviews page at Amazon for examples. As a result, I have removed the adjective "learned" for Bryson's language books, as Bryson is not a professional linguist and "Mother Tongue" is essentially distilled from older popular works on language by writers such as Mario Pei, who were themselves deplored by linguists. If there's interest, I can create a section on errors in Bryson's works.
I hope I don't sound like a Bryson-basher. I love his travelogues and enjoy his writing style, but his language books have a lot of problems and that has to be faced. Kricxjo 22:54 5 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- Nevertheless, I've moved mention of criticism out of the first paragraph, where it seemed out of context (the first paragraph merely mentions what sort of books he writes; no claims are made here about either popularity or authority). To balance it, I've slightly strengthened the mention of criticism later on (which previously seemed somewhat dismissive of the criticisms). TSP 10:30, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
According to the introduction in Notes From a Small Island, published by Black Swan in the UK, ISBN 0-552-97600-9, Bill Bryson has moved back from the States to the UK. But I can't find this information anywhere else on the internet so I'm hesitant to edit the main page. Does anyone know if this is true? Hwebers 3 Jan 2004
- I know Bill's son, we are at university together, they have moved back to Lincolnshire. --Rje 02:16, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)
