Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson Hurrumph, it's The Lost Continent, actually
Bill Bryson is my hero. This guy takes travel writing writing and pumps so much easy erudition into it you'll be able to regurgitate it at parties forever afterwards ("Were you aware that the Founding Fathers came to America totally unprepared? One guy apparently had something like a hundred pairs of shoes and a history of Turkey. And the first people they met could speak better English than a lot of them"). Of course, if you keep that up you might never get invited to another party after all. Still, Bryson writes with a wit that actually makes you laugh out loud. One of the things Fi dislikes most is when I say, "ooh, just listen to this bit", and Bill Bryson's books make me do that with astonishing regularity.
This one, like Notes from a Small Island (that I finished reading just before I started up this website) is a travelogue of Bryson's meanderings across North America in which he bemoans the avarice of American tourist institutions (while admitting, somewhat shamefully, that he really enjoys the attractions themselves), and gives you an insight into the many varied cultures that make up the US. It is also something of a dedication to his father who died before the writing of this novel and the fraught family holidays he was the instigator of. I'm only halfway through, but I already know that this book will become a firm favourite, just like all his others...
Conclusion: Having now read this, I would have to say that Notes from a Small Island is Neither Here nor There version 2 (Or, in actual fact, The Lost Continent version 2). In essence they are the same book, just using different countries, but neither is diminished for all that. Bill Bryson actually makes me want to visit the US (something I've never been too keen on) - if only to see the Grand Canyon which is apparently over a mile deep and ten miles wide in some places, and over 180 miles long. I give this book an unreserved thumbs up.
| Ben gives it: | | | | |
|
Price: (This is a two-part Hardback book containing Neither Here nor There and The Lost Continent) �9.99
Published by: Secker and Warburg