Book Fair: Giddings on Bryson

I first met Paull Giddings 51 years ago in the city room (!) of the Washington Courthouse (Ohio) Record-Herald. Paull is on hand now to introduce today's item in the Underbelly summer Book Fair:

I just finished reading Shakespeare, by the amiable writer Bill Bryson. He says up front, "The Library of Congress... contains about seven thousand works on Shakespeare.... To answer the obvious question, this book was written not so much because the world needs another book on Shakespeare as because this series does." Ah, truth in publishing! Who would have expected it?

Bryson's book is brief and delightful, but he's right: the "Eminent Lives Series" is the reason it exists. I haven't yet read any of the other books in the series, but it contains some promising intersections of writer and subject ...

Observation: The only Bryson I've read is a genial introduction to English culture, which I found lying on the floor of the front seat of a car that a colleague left with me while he was away on leave. . "Amiable" is fair comment; "genial" might do even better. Bryson is one of those lucky people who has found a way to do what he likes to do, and to get paid for it. Again, recall that for your convenience, we will be collecting all the Book Fair posts here.