Well, she liked the book, but I’m not as funny as Bill Bryson?
<Thurston Howell>How dare her?</Thurston Howell>
OK, fine, she’s got me there. I think I probably am as funny as Bryson, but I restrained myself in the book. Plus, gamma-ray burst beams sterilizing the Earth down to the base of the crust just isn’t as funny as getting bitten by a cone snail.
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. |
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November 12th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
“The play was a great success, but the audience was a
disaster.” — Oscar Wilde.
“The central problem in Hamlet is whether the critics are
mad or only pretending to be mad.” — Oscar Wilde.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
The book is wonderful, Phil. But she’s right, you’re not as funny as Bill Bryson. On the other hand, that’s not saying much. There are very few people who write as well as he does by any measure, and I say that as someone who makes his living writing and who very much wishes he were capable of writing at that level. Keep up the good work, and don’t worry about the critics.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
C’mon, Phil. Thurston would have said “How dare *she*”.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
It could have been worse, she could have said “Phil Plate is not as funny as Bill Bryson.”
November 12th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Just finished Death and it was great. The biggest problem with the book is that my copy isn’t signed yet and I don’t want a pre-signed book, I want to be there for it. You’re funnier than Bill Bryson. Who’s Bill Bryson?
November 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I really got tired of reading Bryson. His incredibly flowery prose is always chock full of overinflated hyperbole. Just like that middle sentence.
Maybe I would like your book, Phil. Is it at Sam’s? (Yeah, I’m cheap.)
November 12th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I agree with Molechaser … sorry, Phil!
Interestingly (to me, at least!) I read a study many years ago that attempted to measure people’s self-assessment of their humour against some sort of standard and they found that almost everyone – the funny and the unfunny alike – assessed themselves in the 75-80th percentile. Not that I think you are unfunny, Phil!!!
November 12th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great achievement, Bryson is a journalist that have always been curious about science and decided to do some research and write a book about… well, nearly everything. That the book got a very high level of accuracy and speaks on level that appeals to laymen (laypersons?) is admirable and should be a beacon of the value of research for all journalists, regardless of subject.
Whoever find Bryson’s use of language “flowery” must be reading some real crude books to begin with. If you want to know what flowery language really looks like, go read some Umberto Eco, why use ten words when a thousand can do the same.
If I where to compare the two books, Death wins hands down. It fit perfectly under that wobbly table leg, whereas Bryson’s is way to thick.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:24 am
She says that she learned in your book that the sun will eventually engulf the earth… I though that the sun’s extreme mass loss that occurs before that would prevent that from happening, reducing the gravitational hold of the sun and expanding the planet’s orbits out further. We’re toast either way, of course.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:28 am
I recommend Bryson’s “Notes From a Small Island”, especially to those who live in (or know) Britain. It will have you rolling on the floor
Phil – honestly? I think you’re often as funny as Bill, just in a different way.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:04 am
At least Phil (or his publisher) doesn’t issue the same book under more than one title. Bryson’s “I’m A Stranger Here Myself” was previously published as “Notes From A Big Country”, and the one Phil refers to (“In a Sunburned Country”) used to be called “Down Under”. Wikipedia says it’s a UK/US thing. It’s still pretty annoying (even though the books themselves, and “A Short History” too, are superb).
November 13th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Jeeves, I wholeheartedly agree.
When I followed Phil’s link to the description of Bryson’s book, I thought: “Eh? Has he written a second book about Oz?”.
Incidentally, I do agree that Phil ain’t as funny as Bryson (sorry, Phil, but that’s the way I see it), but that to be compared in humour with Bryson is no bad thing. Maybe it’s because he lived in Britain for so long (Bill, not Phil).
Incidentally, Bill Bryson is the present Chancellor of Durham University, which is very near where I live.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:13 am
The Harris Country Public Library (Houston) system has ordered 12 copies of your book.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am
A good book is something to be savored, read slowly and thoughtfully and drooled on,er, I mean, written on,,,So far, I’ve read half way thru Death and found it very concise (very important to me. I detest rambling prose for the mere sake of wordage) , humorous, informative (ok, maybe not so much for me as I knew most of this stuff already), and simple enough for nearly anyone with an interest to comprehend.
Kudos, Phil!
GAry 7
November 13th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Yeah,
I, for one, wouldn’t think that more humor would have been too good an idea for the subject matter. I enjoyed the book.
I also look out my window to make sure everything has just one shadow, before I go through the trouble of shaving…
rod
November 13th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Of course, what she may have *actually* meant was not that Phil (the person) is not as funny as Bill Bryson (the person), but that this particular book of Phil’s (dealing with unthinkable horrors in a friendly upbeat way) is not as funny as one or two of Bill Bryson’s books, which may have been particulary funny.
Just my 2 cents (or 1.6 cents US).
November 13th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
What do critics know? I’ve read several of Bryson’s titles, and while he is a very good writer and has an excellent wit, I think he is over-rated by the media and the pedestrian reading public alike. Phil’s writing style is as good as Bryson’s, and he’s actually a funnier than Bryson. That’s my opinion, and everyone is entitled to it.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
From the Random House blurb Phil links to
“Australia, the country that doubles as a continent”
Maybe Sarah Palin was confusing Africa and Australia.
In a Sunburned Country / Down Under is hilarious because it is about how a whole country conspires to find interesting ways to kill you. Death From The Skies is hilarious because it is about how the whole universe conspires to find interesting ways to kill you. I love both.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:55 am
I’m on the Supernova chapter and loving every page. I’ve had several (literal) LOL moments, and mrsW is threatening to take the book off me if I don’t stop reading her particularly juicy bits.