3.0

I'm thinking about doing away with goodreads star ratings because books like this I really don't know how to rate.

On one hand I whizzed through it and enjoyed the experience of reading it. On the other hand it wasn't life-changing, didn't tell me that much I didn't already know and at some points I found it a bit jarring. I do like Bill Bryson's writing but I feel as if he can be a bit judgemental with his opinions about people that he doesn't ever get the time to really know and he sometimes gives off a very superior air... what redeems it slightly (and avoids me feeling the same way about this as I did about A Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell) is that I get the sense a lot of his comments are deliberately hyperbolic in order to get a laugh from the reader. Sometimes it genuinely works but other times I feel like he tries way too hard.

Either way, enjoyed it, probably not as much as Down Under. I wonder if he is getting grumpier in his books or I am getting more cynical.