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A review by leaapolline
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson
3.0
So this was mildly entertaining, and definitely made me laugh out loud a few times. I love the way Bryson thinks and the way he carefully phrases things for maximum absurdity! The reading experience wasn't my favorite because of the format.
This is a collection of columns written over a few years' time. The upside to this is that the book is small pods of 4-page stories. Easy to fly through. The downside, which had me dreading the last paragraph of each column, is the pithy ending to each. You know how comedians end their sets with a joke that ties back to something they said in the beginning? Each column is like that. Probably cute and great when reading one per week, but ten or more in a row really wore on me.
I was also hoping for more contrast between the way things are done in England and America. I picked up a few things (America has lots of variety when shopping for anything, wait staff is much friendlier in the States...) but would have loved more.
I recommend this book for people who like sentences with humor, but I wouldn't say it's going to teach you much about either country or be a book you can't wait to finish.
This is a collection of columns written over a few years' time. The upside to this is that the book is small pods of 4-page stories. Easy to fly through. The downside, which had me dreading the last paragraph of each column, is the pithy ending to each. You know how comedians end their sets with a joke that ties back to something they said in the beginning? Each column is like that. Probably cute and great when reading one per week, but ten or more in a row really wore on me.
I was also hoping for more contrast between the way things are done in England and America. I picked up a few things (America has lots of variety when shopping for anything, wait staff is much friendlier in the States...) but would have loved more.
I recommend this book for people who like sentences with humor, but I wouldn't say it's going to teach you much about either country or be a book you can't wait to finish.