Month: March 2019

I’m reading The Road to Little Dribbling, a travel memoir by Bill Bryson.

In this morning’s chapter, Bill (I feel like I can call him Bill, after spending a decade travelling the world with him in his books) promoted a concept he’s come up with: we should all be allowed a list of a dozen things we hate without having to defend, justify, or explain it.

I think with most of mine, the explanation is self-evident:

1. Small talk.
2. People who call holidays ‘holibobs.’
3. Love Actually.
4. The people and charities dedicated to saving giant pandas from extinction.
5. Portmanteaus.
6. Books written in present tense.
7. Gullible fools who claim the Loch Ness Monster isn’t real.
8. Olives.
9. People over 20 who brag about how much alcohol they drank on a night out.
10. Brexit (see #5) and everyone who voted for it. All 20 million of them.
11. The fetishisation of coffee.
12. Centipedes.

What’s your list?