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At Home
768 pages
A cozy, endlessly fascinating stroll through the hidden histories lurking in the mundane corners of your own house.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting by a crackling fire with a wildly knowledgeable, slightly eccentric uncle who cannot stop telling you mind-blowing facts about the salt shaker. The pace is delightfully meandering, wandering from room to room and digressing into centuries-old rabbit holes about everything from the architecture of staircases to the toxic horrors of Victorian wallpaper. The mood is deeply cozy yet intellectually expansive, wrapping the reader in a warm blanket of wry humor and astonishing trivia. It transforms the mundane into the extraordinary, ensuring you will never look at your dining table or bathroom plumbing the same way again. This is a perfect companion for curious minds who relish dry wit and the joy of discovering the bizarre history hidden in plain sight.
- Mood
- cozy
- intellectually stimulating
- fireside-chat
- Tone
- wry
- conversational
- inquisitive
- affable
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- the hidden history of the mundane · human ingenuity and folly · the evolution of comfort · interconnectedness of daily life
- The writing
- Conversational and witty, the sentences are packed with fascinating trivia delivered in a warm, avuncular voice.
- The arc
- The reader moves from simple curiosity about everyday surroundings to a profound, amused appreciation for the bizarre and often perilous history of human domesticity.
- Who it's for
- Curious minds who love falling down historical rabbit holes and appreciate dry, gentle humor.
Content notes
- historical diseases
- poor sanitation
- mild historical macabre details
About the book
At Home: A Short History of Private Life is a history of domestic life written by Bill Bryson. It was published in May 2010. The book covers topics of the commerce, architecture, technology and geography that have shaped homes into what they are today, told through a series of "tours" through Bryson's Norfolk rectory that quickly digress into the history of each particular room.
Description from Open Library.
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