Wednesday, June 27, 2018

At Home

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson, 497 pages

In this fascinating book, Bryson looks into the parts of history that are usually overlooked: the stories of how homes developed, of how different rooms found their purpose, of how humans gradually became more comfortable. Along the way, Bryson often branches off into rambling tangents about everything from the scandalous spending habits of Thomas Jefferson to the stomach-turning life cycles of household pests (I give you permission to skip that chapter if you're worried about nightmares of creepy crawly creatures) to the late-coming efforts to preserve prehistorical sites in Britain. All in all, it's a treasure trove of trivia for anyone who wondered about the walls around them, the chair their sitting on, the bed they sleep in...

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