What were Bill Bryson’s early experiences?

Generally speaking, those who can write popular science works, even if they are not scientists, must be well-known professional popular science writers. However, it is incredible that Bill Bryson, the author of the book "A Brief History of Everything" that caused a global sensation, is actually a travel literature writer. He was born in Iowa, USA, in 1951 and graduated from Drake University, USA.

Some people seem to be destined to run around. Apart from the practical considerations of travel writing, travel to Bill Bryson is almost like "the bewitching song of the siren". When he was 21 years old, Bill Bryson boarded an Icelandair flight from Iowa, USA to Luxembourg, and then walked from Hammerfest, Norway to Istanbul, experiencing a four-month backpacking trip. Bryson came to England for the first time in 1973. Almost on the first day, Bryson realized that this was the place he wanted to stay: there were left-handers like him everywhere! He found a job caring for mildly mentally ill patients in a hospital and married a beautiful nurse. After Bill Bryson settled in London in 1977, he began working for The Times and The Independent. In 1995, when Bill Bryson and his British wife Cynthia decided to give their four children a cultural change, a Gallup survey revealed that 3.7 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens. Bryson jokingly said, "Obviously my countrymen need me," and returned to the United States with his wife and children.

Before leaving the UK, Bryson published his farewell work-"Ha! "Little Britain", and "Step into Little America" ??was written for his first trip back to the United States, and "Fermented Europe" is a wonderful memory of his trip to Europe 20 years ago. Compared with Paul Truex, the travel writer whom Bryson admires - this old man's style is to travel by train and record his travels in detail - what Bill Bryson is good at is writing. British sarcasm that tells jokes with a straight face. He never regarded himself as a real travel writer. He said that real travel writers have to take risks and sleep on the hard ground, and he always slept in hotels. In fact, in his book, he also extensively describes hotels, waitresses, pubs, and his own experiences of drinking too much. He especially reminds people not to offend waitresses, because the way they treat annoying guests is to spit in his food. Although Bryson modestly claims that he is just a traveler who happens to be good at writing, his humor has not only been favored by many British and American readers, but has also made him one of the top travel writers in today's literary world.

As an American who has lived in the UK for more than 20 years, although Bryson claims that British culture has a profound influence on him, his nature as an American cannot be changed. In his books, British wisdom Humor goes together with American comedy that is never afraid of vulgarity. For example, in "Fermented Europe", in Bryson's writing, Europe appears to be surreal and exaggerated and ridiculous: "Italians are too busy driving and never pay attention to the road conditions in front of the car. They are busy honking their horns and doing various things. He made exaggerated gestures, was busy preventing others from overtaking, was busy having sex, was busy turning his head to teach the children in the back seat, and was busy eating a sandwich bigger than a cricket bat, and he was doing all these things at the same time. As a result, when they first noticed you, you were lying on the road behind their car and appeared in the rearview mirror."

This person was described by the British Times as "the most powerful person in the world today." The Most Interesting Tourist" in "Ha! "Little Britain", "Europe is Fermenting", "Step into Little America", "Don't Dig to the Mountain", "Is This the United States?" " and many other travel literature works, each of which ranks at the top of the bestseller lists in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and has many readers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Among them, "Ha! "Little Britain" was even voted by British readers as "the work that most profoundly conveys the British soul". In the field of linguistics, he has written books such as "Dictionary of Troublesome Words", "Mother Tongue", and "American English", all of which are humorous works with a large number of fans.

Bryson is not only talented but also has a wide range of interests. He has had a strong interest in science since he was a child, but the textbooks he came into contact with while growing up were extremely boring. Bill Bryson feels that scientific topics are getting less and less attention in schools, and there are very few popular science books on bestseller lists. He believes that it is the "anemic" and lifeless style of scientific standard textbooks that stifles our curiosity about the natural world. He wants to use his way to tell people the mysteries of nature, geography, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, quantum physics, etc. Therefore, in 2003, he created "A Brief History of Everything".

Bill Bryson (1951~)

Unlike scientists who want to write popular books, Bryson can freely admit that he knows almost nothing about the universe. As far as I know, my mentality is the same as that of most readers. He consulted experts in dozens of disciplines about ancient and modern scientific research results, linked them together in his humorous and casual tone, and used various historical anecdotes to make difficult scientific concepts vivid and readable. Bryson is a well-known best-selling travel writer. This time, as a science enthusiast, he wrote a popular science book "One Hundred Thousand Whys" about everything in the world and thousands of lives, from the Big Bang to the beginning of human dominance of the earth. "This is a book about how it all happened," he said. The success of this science enthusiast may once again illustrate the truth: in a good popular science book, how it is told is more important than what it is told.