Bill Bryson Reading Order

2 books (1990–2012)

Start with Great Baseball Stories and read in order.

#	Title
1	Great Baseball Stories 1990Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Astronomy Book 2012Buy 🇺🇸

13 books (1991–2009)

Start with Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time(By: Karen Armstrong), the first of 13 books in the Eminent Lives series.

#	Title
1	Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time(By: Karen Armstrong) 1991Buy 🇺🇸
2	George Balanchine(By: Robert Gottlieb) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
3	Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero(By: Michael Korda) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
4	Alexander the Great(By: Norman F. Cantor) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
5	Beethoven(By: Edmund Morris) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
6	Caravaggio(By: Francine Prose) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
7	Thomas Jefferson(By: Christopher Hitchens) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
8	Alexis de Tocqueville(By: Joseph Epstein) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
9	Francis Crick(By: Matt Ridley) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
10	Freud(By: Peter D. Kramer) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
11	Machiavelli(By: Ross King) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
12	Shakespeare 2007Buy 🇺🇸
13	George Washington(By: Paul Johnson) 2009Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (2008–2013)

Start with Icons of England and read in order.

#	Title
1	Icons of England 2008Buy 🇺🇸
2	At Home: A Short History of Private Life 2010Buy 🇺🇸
3	One Summer: America, 1927 2013Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1984–2008)

Start with Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, the first of 4 books in the Language series.

#	Title
1	Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words 1984Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Mother Tongue 1990Buy 🇺🇸
3	Made in America 1994Buy 🇺🇸
4	Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors 2008Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (2000–2015)

Start with The English Landscape: Its Character and Diversity(With: Marina Warner,Christopher Lloyd,Jennifer Jenkins,David Bellamy,Robin Hanbury-Tenbison,Anna Parord) and read in order.

#	Title
1	The English Landscape: Its Character and Diversity(With: Marina Warner,Christopher Lloyd,Jennifer Jenkins,David Bellamy,Robin Hanbury-Tenbison,Anna Parord) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
2	Myth and Landscape(By: Marina Warner,Ibrahim al-Koni,DavidParker) 2015Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (2000–2022)

Start with The Best American Travel Writing 2000, the first of 4 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	The Best American Travel Writing 2000 2000Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir 2006Buy 🇺🇸
3	Shakespeare 2007Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Secret History of Christmas 2022Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (2003–2025)

Start with A Short History of Nearly Everything, the first of 5 books in the Science series.

#	Title
1	A Short History of Nearly Everything 2003Buy 🇺🇸
2	A Really Short History of Nearly Everything 2004Buy 🇺🇸
3	Seeing Further 2010Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Body 2019Buy 🇺🇸
5	A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 2025Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2023–2023)

12 books (2000–2021)

Start with The Best American Travel Writing 2000, the first of 12 books in the The Best American: Travel Writing series.

#	Title
1	The Best American Travel Writing 2000 2000Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Best American Travel Writing 2011(By: Sloane Crosley) 2011Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Best American Travel Writing 2012(By: Jason Wilson) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Best American Travel Writing 2013(By: Jason Wilson) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Best American Travel Writing 2014(By: Jason Wilson) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Best American Travel Writing 2015(By: Jason Wilson) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Best American Travel Writing 2016 2016Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Best American Travel Writing 2017(By: Jason Wilson,Lauren Collins) 2017Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Best American Travel Writing 2018(By: Cheryl Strayed) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Best American Travel Writing 2019(By: Jason Wilson) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Best American Travel Writing 2020(By: Jason Wilson) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Best American Travel Writing 2021(By: Padma Lakshmi) 2021Buy 🇺🇸

10 books (1985–2015)

Start with The Palace Under the Alps, the first of 10 books in the Travel series.

#	Title
1	The Palace Under the Alps 1985Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Lost Continent 1989Buy 🇺🇸
3	Neither Here nor There 1992Buy 🇺🇸
4	Notes from a Small Island 1995Buy 🇺🇸
5	A Walk in the Woods 1997Buy 🇺🇸
6	I'm a Stranger Here Myself / Notes from a Big Country 1998Buy 🇺🇸
7	In a Sunburned Country / Down Under 2000Buy 🇺🇸
8	The English Landscape: Its Character and Diversity(With: Marina Warner,Christopher Lloyd,Jennifer Jenkins,David Bellamy,Robin Hanbury-Tenbison,Anna Parord) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
9	Bill Bryson's African Diary 2002Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Road to Little Dribbling 2015Buy 🇺🇸