New Releases by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson ha logrado lo que parecía imposible: hacer inteligible y entretenido el mundo de la ciencia a millones de personas de todo el mundo. Ahora, en esta nueva espléndida edición ilustrada, los acontecimientos más destacables - desde la Gran Explosión hasta la aparición de la civilización- cobran vida con impresionantes fotografías, dibujos, retratos y viñetas.

One of the English language’s most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free grammar. As usual Bill Bryson says it best: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where ‘cleave’ can mean to cut in half or to hold two halves together; where the simple word ‘set’ has 126 different meanings as a verb, 58 as a noun, and 10 as a participial adjective; where if you can run fast you are moving swiftly, but if you are stuck fast you are not moving at all; [and] where ‘colonel,’ ‘freight,’ ‘once,’ and ‘ache’ are strikingly at odds with their spellings.” As a copy editor for the London Times in the early 1980s, Bill Bryson felt keenly the lack of an easy-to-consult, authoritative guide to avoiding the traps and snares in English, and so he brashly suggested to a publisher that he should write one. Surprisingly, the proposition was accepted, and for “a sum of money carefully gauged not to cause embarrassment or feelings of overworth,” he proceeded to write that book—his first, inaugurating his stellar career. Now, a decade and a half later, revised, updated, and thoroughly (but not overly) Americanized, it has become Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words, more than ever an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. With some one thousand entries, from “a, an” to “zoom,” that feature real-world examples of questionable usage from an international array of publications, and with a helpful glossary and guide to pronunciation, this precise, prescriptive, and—because it is written by Bill Bryson—often witty book belongs on the desk of every person who cares enough about the language not to maul or misuse or distort it.

" Je suis né à Des Moines. Ce sont des choses qui arrivent. Quand on naît à Des Moines, ou bien on accepte la situation sans discuter, on se met en ménage avec une fille du coin nommée Bobbi, on se trouve du travail à l''usine Firestone et on vit là jusqu''à la fin des temps ; ou bien on passe son adolescence à se plaindre à longueur de journée que c''est un trou et qu''on n''a qu''une envie, en partir, et puis on se met en ménage avec une fille du coin nommée Bobbi, on se trouve du travail à l''usine Firestone et on vit là jusqu''à la fin des temps. Avec ce livre Bill Bryson replonge tout au fond de l''Amérique profonde, celle de son enfance, dont il va sillonner une quarantaine d''États au volant d''une vieille Buick prêtée par sa mère. De ce voyage il rapportera un portrait à hurler de rire... et bien plus sérieux qu''il n''y paraît.

Combined in one block-buster of an omnibus now are Bryson''s Down Under, an account of his memorable walk across Australia, and the irresistibly funny A Walk in the Woods, that tells of his lengthy stroll in the Appalachian mountains of America, with his old friend Stephen Katz. Bill Bryson traversed the length and breadth of Australia to bring us Down Under. A household name, synonymous with laugh-out-loud humour, sniggering, and outbursts of chortling, Down Under is what''s commonly known as the perennial classic. In the very same volume is a story of his walk down the longest continuous footpath in the world. The Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America - the Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah National Park, the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and the Great North Woods of Maine. Read them both, now, together.

Explains the exact meanings and offers advice on the proper usage of a variety of commonly misused words

A book of blunders to show fact is funnier than fiction.

In 1995, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his home. The hilarious book he wrote about that journey, ''Notes from a Small Island'', became one of the most loved books of recent decades, and was voted in a BBC poll as the book that best represents Britain. Now, Bill Bryson sets out on a brand-new journey, on a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis on the south coast to Cape Wrath on the northernmost tip of Scotland. Once again, he will guide us through all that''s best and worst about Britain today - while doing that incredibly rare thing of making us laugh out loud in public.