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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
funny
fast-paced
This was a quick read, but not my favorite Bryson. Some was really funny, but most of the time I just felt like it was written in too British a style to really get through to me.
A very entertaining read, that somehow seemed a propos while traveling around America on a road trip. Lots to laugh about, and lots to reflect on.
funny
reflective
fast-paced
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I thoroughly enjoyed this. There were moments in the middle that weren't quite as good as the rest, but generally I found myself either smiling or laughing throughout.
When Bill Bryson moved back to the U.S. from England after being there for twenty years, he was employed to write a column for an English paper about life in America. This book is a collection of those columns as they were originally printed, so you'll read things like, "As I said in my column last week," without having read the previous column. The content flits around and could have benefited from better organization. The columns are the full range if Bryson. Some of them are delightfully witty. Some of them are mini rants. Some of them make you say, "Ah, yes, we Americans do do that," some of them are very informative, and some of them haven't aged well (the column full of outrage about needing to use photo ID to board an airplane; fear of Y2K, anything about fax machines, etc.).
Because this book is an anthology, some of the pieces are absolutely hilarious and some are on the more boring side. This is the weakest work I've read by Bryson but still worth it if you are a fan.