Bill Bryson has to be one of the funniest authors writing today - I can't think of a book of his that hasn't had me in stitches, and that includes the ones he's written about language. For me the best thing about him is that although he often pokes fun at people, he does so in the most wonderful warm-hearted and affectionate way, and the butt of most of his jokes is himself.

This is about BB's trip around Britain - an island whose inhabitants he is especially fond of because he has lived there for 20 years or so.

It's not his best book, in my opinion, but it is very very funny.

I bought this especially for release at the UK Bookcrossing Unconvention in July 2004.

Release planned for Saturday, July 17, 2004 at BCUK 2004 Unconvention @ Apres Bar, Summerrow in Birmingham, England Controlled Releases.

Released at the 2004 Bookcrossing UK Unconvention for another BCUK-er to enjoy.

Definitely a lucky find for me among the hundreds of books on offer at the Unconvention - and my third Bill Bryson acquired to-day. Many thanks to SwissToni for making this one available.

Finding a copy of this book in a Charity shop I snapped it up because I wasn't sure if it was one I already had or not, but knew that Bill Bryson is very popular and it would soon find a home if necessary. Of course, it did turn out to be a duplicate, so I am keeping that one for my PC and releasing this one back into the BC pool.

RABCKing this book to Fire-Dragon to-day. Enjoy!

This is the perfect book for me to celebrate my recent move to the UK (from Australia). I have read other work by Bryson and always found him to be entertaining and occasionally insightful as well.

Jalna has sent this to me as a RABCK (although it may be a bookray instead) and it arrived last night. Thank you!

I took this with me on the train this morning (after wrestling my boyfriend for it - I think he'll be next in line, although he refuses to journal on principle) and started reading.

I was particularly amused by the passages on page 46&47 where he lists the ways in which London could be improved. Some of them have actually happened already - removing staff cars from outside the British Museum and turning it into a park and abolishing entry fees for all museums, to name two.

I am about a chapter away from the end of the book but making my journal entry now as I wish to pass it on to someone tonight. (An Australian fresh off the boat in London who has promised to sign up to BookCrossing if I give him a book).

A quirky and charming romp through all the forgotten corners of England and Wales (he doesn't go to Scotland unless it's in the bit I haven't read yet). I don't think this is Bryson's best book - the one about America, Notes from a Big Country, is funnier, but it's delightful all the same. He injects a lot of himself into the book, so it's part travelogue, part humour and part soapbox. He pokes fun at the Brits but you can tell he loves them, really.

Well, I've finished it and passed it on today. And, yes, Bryson did go to Scotland - the very next chapter! Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow ... I guess it's a sign of the fact that Britain is, indeed, a small island that he could do so much in such a short space of time.