Scan barcode
A review by samyukta_24
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
3.0
Having only read Bill Bryson’s, “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, I went into this expecting a similar plethora of information and memorable anecdotes about his travels in Europe. I certainly was not expecting it to be as raunchy and mildly vitriolic as it turned out to be.
There were things I loved, tolerated, as well as disliked, about the book. To begin with, the aspects I loved were his short random anecdotes and analogies. They were extremely relatable to anyone who has ever traveled anywhere, and a few of them were certainly of the laugh-out-loud kind. Another thing I loved was that it was refreshingly different from an ordinary guidebook. It was one person’s truly personal and biased account of Europe and all it had to offer, and that was enough to keep it from getting boring. Also, another nice addition were the stats and histories of specific places that were interspersed in between.
Moving on to the things I did not love but could deal with, was the adult tone of the book as well as the stereotypical approach towards each country. It's all fun and games when you see other countries getting roasted until you realize he might do the same to yours. Most of the writing was plain grousing, but some passages truly made me want to write that place down on my travel list, just by the way he described it.
And finally, the parts I truly disliked would have to be the kind of whining undertone throughout the book, especially regarding the food and hotels. They were putting a damper on the momentum. Towards the end, I could feel Bryson’s fatigue through the book and was silently willing him to just end his travels and return home, because it was starting to sound tiresome, which might be as realistic as a travel memoir gets.
All in all, I don’t regret reading it, and it is an entertaining book if taken in a carefree spirit with no deeper meanings attached.
There were things I loved, tolerated, as well as disliked, about the book. To begin with, the aspects I loved were his short random anecdotes and analogies. They were extremely relatable to anyone who has ever traveled anywhere, and a few of them were certainly of the laugh-out-loud kind. Another thing I loved was that it was refreshingly different from an ordinary guidebook. It was one person’s truly personal and biased account of Europe and all it had to offer, and that was enough to keep it from getting boring. Also, another nice addition were the stats and histories of specific places that were interspersed in between.
Moving on to the things I did not love but could deal with, was the adult tone of the book as well as the stereotypical approach towards each country. It's all fun and games when you see other countries getting roasted until you realize he might do the same to yours. Most of the writing was plain grousing, but some passages truly made me want to write that place down on my travel list, just by the way he described it.
And finally, the parts I truly disliked would have to be the kind of whining undertone throughout the book, especially regarding the food and hotels. They were putting a damper on the momentum. Towards the end, I could feel Bryson’s fatigue through the book and was silently willing him to just end his travels and return home, because it was starting to sound tiresome, which might be as realistic as a travel memoir gets.
All in all, I don’t regret reading it, and it is an entertaining book if taken in a carefree spirit with no deeper meanings attached.