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Bill Bryson

    8 dicembre 1951

    Bill Bryson è un maestro nel catturare l'esperienza umana attraverso l'umorismo e l'osservazione acuta. I suoi resoconti di viaggio, spesso incentrati sugli angoli pittoreschi dell'America e dell'Europa, sono intrisi di acuta perspicacia e ottimismo contagioso. Lo stile unico di Bryson, che non teme di confrontare le differenze culturali ed esaminare l'apparente ordinario con fascino, lo rende un narratore amato. Oltre alle sue fughe di viaggio, si dedica anche a opere di divulgazione scientifica, rendendo argomenti complessi come la scienza e la storia della lingua accessibili e avvincenti, il tutto con il suo inconfondibile spirito.

    Bill Bryson
    The Body Illustrated
    America perduta
    Una città o l'altra
    In un paese bruciato dal sole
    Una passeggiata nei boschi
    Breve storia di (quasi) tutto
    • Breve storia di (quasi) tutto

      • 589pagine
      • 21 ore di lettura

      In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

      Breve storia di (quasi) tutto
      4,2
    • Una passeggiata nei boschi

      Un'avventura sull'Appalachian Trail, il sentiero più lungo del mondo

      • 307pagine
      • 11 ore di lettura

      L'Appalachian Trail: un sentiero di 3.400 chilometri che si snoda attraverso 14 Stati americani, dalla Georgia al Maine. Il sogno di tutti gli amanti della natura e dell'avventura. Ed è proprio in cerca di avventura che, all'età di 44 anni, Bill Bryson, in compagnia dell'amico Stephen Katz, si cimenta nell'impresa di percorrere a piedi il leggendario sentiero, senza la minima cognizione delle elementari norme di sopravvivenza nella natura selvaggia. L'avventura dei due cittadini si svolge all'insegna di una divertita incoscienza tra bufere di neve, nugoli di insetti, incontri con gli animali selvatici e con una sorprendente varietà di individui.

      Una passeggiata nei boschi
      4,1
    • In un paese bruciato dal sole

      l'Australia

      • 366pagine
      • 13 ore di lettura

      Armato di taccuino e di una dose inesauribile di entusiasmo, ironia e curiosità, Bryson ha attraversato in treno l'interno desertico dell'Australia, da Sidney a Perth, lungo la leggendaria Indian Pacific, con i suoi 468 chilometri di estensione. Ha guidato nelle città e lungo le strade costiere, ha camminato nei parchi e navigato su fiumi e tratti di mare, ha incontrato nostalgici hippy e vecchie signore strampalate.

      In un paese bruciato dal sole
      4,1
    • Una città o l'altra

      Viaggi in Europa

      • 346pagine
      • 13 ore di lettura

      Bill Bryson's first travel book, The Lost Continent, was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither Here nor There he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia. Fluent in, oh, at least one language, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before. Whether braving the homicidal motorist of Paris, being robbed by gypsies in Florence, attempting not to order tripe and eyeballs in a German restaurant, window-shopping in the sex shops of the Reeperbahn or disputing his hotel bill in Copenhagen, Bryson takes in the sights, dissects the culture and illuminates each place and person with his hilariously caustic observations. He even goes to Liechtenstein.

      Una città o l'altra
      3,9
    • America perduta

      In viaggio attraverso gli Usa

      • 304pagine
      • 11 ore di lettura

      Un appassionante vagabondaggio per le strade di un’America minore, dentro il cuore delle piccole città che sono l’anima segreta degli Stati Uniti, luoghi in cui la vita sembra rimasta ferma agli anni cinquanta. Un viaggio attraverso un presente rimasto passato, in una provincia rurale che sembra non voler lasciare spazio al futuro. Bill Bryson, americano di nascita ma inglese d’adozione, percorre a bordo di una vecchia Chevrolet 22.500 chilometri all’inseguimento di un ricordo. Restituendoci un tempo cristallizzato, la canzone di uno sterminato paese che continua a credere, a immaginare, a vivere fra le pieghe di un sogno domestico e provinciale.

      America perduta
    • The Body Illustrated

      A Guide for Occupants

      • 560pagine
      • 20 ore di lettura

      The book has achieved bestseller status in both hardback and paperback formats, highlighting its widespread popularity and appeal among readers. Its compelling narrative and engaging characters have resonated with a diverse audience, contributing to its commercial success. This recognition underscores the book's impact and relevance in contemporary literature.

      The Body Illustrated
      4,6
    • The Golden Apples of the Sun

      • 168pagine
      • 6 ore di lettura

      Cover Illustration: Trevor Scobie Set the controls for the heart of the sun. The Captain bent in the warm air, cursing, felt his hands run over the cold machine, and while he worked he saw a future which was removed from them by the merest breath. He saw the skin peel from the rocket beehive, men thus revealed running, running, mouths shrieking, soundless. Space was a black mossed well where life drowned its roars and terrors. Scream a big scream, but space snuffed it out before it was half up your throat. Men scurried, ants in a flaming matchbox; the ship was dripping lava, gushing steam, nothing! Journey with the century's most popular fantasy writer into a world of wonder and horror beyond your wildest dreams. Contents: - The Fog Horn (1951) - The Pedestrian (1951) - The April Witch (1952) - The Wilderness (1952) - The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl (1948) - Invisible Boy (1945) - The Flying Machine (1953) - The Murderer (1953) - The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind (1953) - I See You Never (1947) - Embroidery (1951) - The Big Black and White Game (1945) - A Sound of Thunder (1952) - The Great Wide World Over There (1952) - Powerhouse (1948) - En la Noche (1952) - Sun and Shadow (1953) - The Meadow (1953) - The Garbage Collector (1953) - The Great Fire (1949) - Hail and Farewell (1953) - The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)

      The Golden Apples of the Sun
      4,4
    • The Body: A Guide for Occupants

      • 464pagine
      • 17 ore di lettura

      NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body—with a new afterword for this edition. Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner’s manual for every body.

      The Body: A Guide for Occupants
      4,3
    • In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day (and slept much of the rest), a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and an unknown aviator named Charles Lindbergh who became the most famous man on earth. It was the summer that saw the birth of talking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone's reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of an over-the-hill baseball player named Babe Ruth, and an almost impossible amount more. In this hugely entertaining book, Bill Bryson spins a story of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy. With the trademark brio, wit and authority that has made him Britain's favourite writer of narrative non-fiction, he brings to life a forgotten summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and changed the world for ever.

      One Summer: America 1927
      4,2
    • Bill Bryson drove 14,000 miles in search of the mythical small town of his youth. Instead he found a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger joints; a continent lost to itself through greed, pollution and television, and lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country. A funny and serious view of smalltown America.

      Last Continent & Neither Here Nor There
      4,2