At Home

A Short History of Private Life

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Bill Bryson

Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2010 Bill Bryson (P)2010 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"There are many guilty pleasures, from Bryson's droll prose - "What really turned the Victorians to bathing, however, was the realization that it could be gloriously punishing" - to the many tantalizing glimpses behind closed doors at aristocratic English country houses. In demonstrating how everything we take for granted, from comfortable furniture to smoke-free air, went from unimaginable luxury to humdrum routine, Bryson shows us how odd and improbable our own lives really are." ( Publishers Weekly)

Bill Bryson at His Finest

If you could sum up At Home in three words, what would they be?

Clever, Interesting, Thoughtful

What did you like best about this story?

Bill Bryson has the uncanny ability to turn seemingly mundane and ordinary into the intriguing and exciting.

What about Bill Bryson’s performance did you like?

Only Bill Bryson could deliver his thoughts and experiences with this kind of precision and inflection.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Suddenly, you find yourself less familiar At Home.

Bryson does his usual good job

If you enjoyed James Burke's "Connections" you will enjoy this book. Bryson walks through his 19th century English house outlining the purpose of each room and the history of how the type of room was used in the past. Along the way, he connects related historical conditions and events into a unique and fascinating web. For instance, at one point he takes us from the house in England to the technical problems of building the Erie Canal in New York State.

Bryson does an excellent job of reading his own work.

Disappointing for a longtime Bryson fan

I've read many of Bryson's books and enjoyed them all - A Walk in the Woods, The Lost Continent, Notes from a Small Island, the one about his trip to Australia, and the one about his move back to the U.S. after 20 years living in England (I don't remember the titles of the last two). In those books he was observant and informative and also very funny.

I have a feeling I would have done better with At Home if I had been able to read it instead of listen to it. I didn't like Bryson's reading style, and I think he's one of those authors who should not read their own books. Also, I found myself drifting off and daydreaming during many extensive passages describing rich and powerful people and how they spent their vast sums of money. Much more interesting were the descriptions of regular people's lives in their homes and just how difficult those lives could be in the years before the modern comforts we all take for granted became available to the majority of us.

Basically, this book was really inconsistent, with Bryson holding my attention, then losing it, and back and forth, all the way through. All of his previous books I've read I would have given at least 4 stars and maybe 5, but this one's only a 3.

Packed with information. Unfortunately...

What did you love best about At Home?

Historical background and details were abundant.

How could the performance have been better?

Just because someone wrote a fine piece of work DOESN'T make them a good choice for narrating that work. Bryson should have hired it out. His breathy delivery didn't do his book any favors and became downright annoying after about three hours (it's a nineteen hour story)

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The information in the book was interesting and sometimes it was funny as well.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Home

Would you listen to At Home again? Why?

I have fallen in love with Bill Bryson, this is very interesting book on the history of our homes and good not stop reading it, can't wait to start another one of Bill's books.

Fascinating story. Difficult to listen to.

With Richard Matthews read it. A fascinating book, very interesting for adults and kids in our family. It's a bit difficult to listen to it, as Bill swallows some sounds, it's like out-of-breath read.

Another winner from Bill Bryson.

Outlining human history as a walkthrough of his home was an exciting journey. The book entertains whe explaining how items we use everyday have come to be. A great read and I recommend it to all!

The best audio book

What a great book, long and wonderful. My favorite Bill B. Book by far. Get it!

History of modern comforts in your home

bill is a great author and much appreciated researched material .
please enjoy learning with bryson

What an excellent book

I wasn’t quite sure what this was about. I enjoyed the history and descriptions of the everyday parts of the home. It’s interesting to hear where some phrases came from and how rooms in the home evolved.