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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
fairly funny, some of the observations are a little ridiculous and not just based on living in America, but most people will find it amusing. getting to be a little bit dated....
Enjoyable as always, if you like his style. The book is a collection of short columns that appeared in a British magazine/paper, so they are not necessarily coherent as one book altogether. I love his observations, like I usually do, but the book does feel a bit dated. It was written in the late 90s and there were already things that seemed silly - for example, griping about the possibility of gas going up by 50 cents/gallon; trying to push his way onto a flight without proper identification (?! I didn't realize this was such a recent thing); and his heavy tech-phobia. Other than these sorts of issues, a fun quick read.
There are some essays where I had to remind myself that Bryson wrote these in the 90s — his reflections on drug laws, immigration, and Americans’ refusal to protect the environment are still sadly relevant and true. There are a few essays that haven’t aged too well, and some that are pure silly fun, like Bryson’s love for the kitchen disposal. Overall, a delight, but one that’s sometimes depressing to read.
The best collection of essays I've read in a long time. Bryson's dry humor was perfect.
This might be too hokey for me.
ETA: I mostly read this book, but I kind of skipped around. It was amusing, but I didn't love it.
ETA: I mostly read this book, but I kind of skipped around. It was amusing, but I didn't love it.
I like Bill Bryson. Let me just start it that way.
This one, though, was kind of boring. It started strong. I'd say the first 40 pages were great. I laughed out loud and all that. But, then it degenerated into some really formulaic, well-worn territory. Observations about complicated computer instructions, how his wife forced him onto some exaggerated diet, excessive paperwork can be excessive, etc. Even the overly familiar stuff had decent moments, but what stood out were all the hackneyed jokes and references to how his kids don't like what he likes, blah blah blah. I was surprised.
And, during moments when he would exaggerate a detail or two for effect, like when he said a brand of adult diapers were labeled "Whoa! Dambusters" (which is funny), he followed it up in the next sentence explaining that, no, that's not really what they said. He peppered a lot of the essays with these "just kidding" bits.
Maybe read the first 40 pages, then go read Pure Drivel by Steve Martin. Or a different Bill Bryson book.
This one, though, was kind of boring. It started strong. I'd say the first 40 pages were great. I laughed out loud and all that. But, then it degenerated into some really formulaic, well-worn territory. Observations about complicated computer instructions, how his wife forced him onto some exaggerated diet, excessive paperwork can be excessive, etc. Even the overly familiar stuff had decent moments, but what stood out were all the hackneyed jokes and references to how his kids don't like what he likes, blah blah blah. I was surprised.
And, during moments when he would exaggerate a detail or two for effect, like when he said a brand of adult diapers were labeled "Whoa! Dambusters" (which is funny), he followed it up in the next sentence explaining that, no, that's not really what they said. He peppered a lot of the essays with these "just kidding" bits.
Maybe read the first 40 pages, then go read Pure Drivel by Steve Martin. Or a different Bill Bryson book.
This was grand. There were a few slow spots for me, but almost every chapter got a smile or a laugh, and the income tax chapter had me laughing so hard I had to keep putting the book down to collect myself.
Funny little antidotes. I got my father to read this too which ended up irritating my mother because he tended to read it before bed while she was trying to go to sleep and he kept waking her up laughing at it.
The columns in Bill Bryson's "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" were written in the late '90s, a time when Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" and the Clinton sex scandal reigned supreme. And yet, reading it in 2016, what's eerie is how much of it is still topical. Or, perhaps, timeless.
Bryson, the author of "A Walk in the Woods" and "A Short History of Everything," had spent the previous 20 years living in the UK. At some point, he writes, he and his wife started batting around the idea of coming to live in the States. Bryson was uncertain; he'd grown up in Des Moines. What could he gain? His British wife, however, was all for the idea. Eventually they came to America, and these columns, written for a UK newspaper, offers Bryson's amusing takes on feeling out of place in the land in which he grew up.
Not all of the book has aged well -- partly because Bryson himself can come off as a crank. His essays on computer installation instructions, mushmouthed bureaucracy or repairmen could have been written by any middle-aged man who preferred things as they used to be. Bryson's usually winning humor, in these pieces, seems gratuitous.
But sometimes he hits a nerve. In one piece he wrote about Congress giving the Defense department $11 billion, despite the fact that the DoD has problems accounting for its previous billions. Sounds all too familiar. In another, he complains about the rigid ID rules in American airports, and how UK airport personnel were generally much more understanding. Given the post-9/11 security theater we now cope with, I find the piece both ironic and unrealistic. (It should be noted that Bryson was living in Hanover, New Hampshire, from which he presumably had to fly to either Boston, Albany or Hartford if he wanted to get anywhere, and I couldn't help but think of Mohammed Atta starting his journey in Maine on 9/11.)
He also has columns about downtowns fading, thanks to Walmart, and the fact that it's almost impossible to walk anywhere in America, given our car culture. Some of that's changed, but his points are well taken.
Bryson is almost always an agreeable (one of his favorite words) sort, and so I'm agreeably giving the book 4 stars, though it's probably closer to 3 1/2. He can be probing when he wants to be, and when the situation calls for it. Sometimes these columns didn't call for him to stretch, and so he didn't; but the ones that do elevate the rest of the book. Now, someone send him someplace unfamiliar.
Bryson, the author of "A Walk in the Woods" and "A Short History of Everything," had spent the previous 20 years living in the UK. At some point, he writes, he and his wife started batting around the idea of coming to live in the States. Bryson was uncertain; he'd grown up in Des Moines. What could he gain? His British wife, however, was all for the idea. Eventually they came to America, and these columns, written for a UK newspaper, offers Bryson's amusing takes on feeling out of place in the land in which he grew up.
Not all of the book has aged well -- partly because Bryson himself can come off as a crank. His essays on computer installation instructions, mushmouthed bureaucracy or repairmen could have been written by any middle-aged man who preferred things as they used to be. Bryson's usually winning humor, in these pieces, seems gratuitous.
But sometimes he hits a nerve. In one piece he wrote about Congress giving the Defense department $11 billion, despite the fact that the DoD has problems accounting for its previous billions. Sounds all too familiar. In another, he complains about the rigid ID rules in American airports, and how UK airport personnel were generally much more understanding. Given the post-9/11 security theater we now cope with, I find the piece both ironic and unrealistic. (It should be noted that Bryson was living in Hanover, New Hampshire, from which he presumably had to fly to either Boston, Albany or Hartford if he wanted to get anywhere, and I couldn't help but think of Mohammed Atta starting his journey in Maine on 9/11.)
He also has columns about downtowns fading, thanks to Walmart, and the fact that it's almost impossible to walk anywhere in America, given our car culture. Some of that's changed, but his points are well taken.
Bryson is almost always an agreeable (one of his favorite words) sort, and so I'm agreeably giving the book 4 stars, though it's probably closer to 3 1/2. He can be probing when he wants to be, and when the situation calls for it. Sometimes these columns didn't call for him to stretch, and so he didn't; but the ones that do elevate the rest of the book. Now, someone send him someplace unfamiliar.