Selected Product:
| Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
Abridged, Au
Edition: Abridged
Publisher: Random House Audio Voices
Release Date: 1999-03-02
ISBN-10: 055352576X
ISBN-13: 9780553525762
List Price: $25.95
Average Customer Rating:
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In a Sunburned Country
ISBN-10: 0767903862
ISBN-13: 9780767903868
List Price:$14.95
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
ISBN-10: 076790382X
ISBN-13: 9780767903820
List Price:$14.95
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
ISBN-10: 0060920084
ISBN-13: 9780060920081
List Price:$14.95
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ISBN-10: 0767915062
ISBN-13: 9780767915069
List Price:$12.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
"Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town."
So begins Bill Bryson's hilarious book A Walk in the Woods. Following his return to America after twenty years in Britain, Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The AT, as it's affectionately known to thousands of hikers, offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to test his own powers of ineptitude, and to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.
For a start, there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa who accompanies the similarly unfit Bryson on the trail. Once Bryson and Katz settle into their stride, it's not long before they come across the fabulously annoying Mary Ellen, whose disappearance ruins a perfectly good slice of pie, a gang of Ralph Lauren-attired yuppies from whom Katz appropriates a key piece of equipment, and a security guard in Pennsylvania who, for no ascertainable reason, impounds Bryson's car. Mile by arduous mile these latter-day pioneers walk America, along the way surviving the threat of bear attacks, the loss of key provisions, and everything else this awe-inspiring country can throw at them.
But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this fragile and beautiful trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, a lament, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature.
A bit of a downer
| Customer Rating: | While I enjoyed this book, I couldn't help but feel a bit depressed after reading it. Having been to Europe a couple of times in the past 25 years (once on a "Grand Tour" in my 20's (in the 1980's) and the other a couple of weeks in Ireland and England-in my 40's), I wanted so much to enjoy this book and hopefully find some things I could relate to from my Grand Tour of Europe (both of my trips were wonderful BTW). What I came away with is what maybe happens too many times when travelling. Mr. Bryson's trip looked better on paper than the actual vacation ended up being.
Mr. Bryson was consistently "let down" by not only the cities and towns he visited (which seemed to be consistently dirty) but also by the Europeans themselves (who were inevitably unfriendly...in most cases). If I had never been to Europe, this book would not give me any inspiration whatsoever to visit there. In fact, I'd want to stay as far away as possible. Who would want to visit filthy cities and deal with dour individuals when you're paying good money to be there and helping to infuse their economies. In country after country this happened to him. I would like to think that we don't treat tourists that way in America...at least I hope not. Of course, it's always been my opinion (and my experience in Europe) that the Europeans have always felt superior (but it's never detracted from my good memories of my trips), but that's another story for another time.
Anyway, the book just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong, I laughed out loud (and quite hysterically) many times while reading it, but in the end I don't feel better for having read it (I did learn some interesting tidbits about some of the countries he visited though). It just surprised and disappointed me that he encountered SO many miserable people in so many different countries during such a short period of time. I suppose it's not his fault that it was what it was... maybe the 90's were just that way though....here's hoping things have changed. |
Should be called "Eurpoean Tales of a Bloated Gasbag"
| Customer Rating: | | Why did Mr. Bryson write this book? Was it to discourage people from traveling in Europe? He is disappointed at every stop he makes - perhaps had he planned a little better, that would not have been the case. In addition, Mr. Bryson forgets that he is a tourist and that people actually live their lives in the places he visits - they do not live there to accomodate tourists or Mr. Bryson. Do yourself a favor - don't buy this book. |
Neither Funny Nor Informative
| Customer Rating: | From reading the numerous glowing reviews, I guess it is just me. I was bored silly with Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There," and after just 70 pages ended up skimming the rest to see if it got better. It didn't and I cut my losses and gave up. Normally I like books by humorists, but Mr. Bryson's humor seems labored and deliberate; basically he hits you over the head with his cliche'd descriptions. I found some of his experiences unbelievable and perhaps he asked for some of the treatment by his manner, attitude, who knows?
I have read Dave Barry and howled, David Sedaris and doubled over trying not to embarrass myself in public by screaming with laughter. Mr. Bryson is not my type of humorist. I guess my impression of this book is that he took a trip back, with a chip on his shoulder and really didn't enjoy it at all. Why are we supposed to??? |
The Gospel of Bill...
| Customer Rating: | Last fall, as a 21 year-old college student in his final year, I started pondering what to do with that ludicrous accumulation of wealth that all university students find upon graduation. Lies, actually: I scraped together the best I could and bought a ticket for London. A pair of "Let's Go" guides accompanied me for practical reasons, but Neither Here Nor There was my travel bible, my Psalms, as it were. I read it that Fall of '07 and it inspired me to take the trip in ways that no other source had. It revealed to me that even travel hardships can result in the most absurdly funny, cherished stories.
His ascerbic wit goes gangbusters on the little quirks of the Continental, from country to hilarious country. I partially molded my trip to make sure I checked out some of his destinations--they were that well-described.
Interestingly enough, I found him to be dead-on in some countries/cities, and WAY off the mark in others. One of his most memorable anecdotes comes out of backwoods Austria. I happened to find the same people to be the kindest, most hospitable of my whole 14-country trip. But the laughs I had over that chapter, and the inspiration to camp out under the Tyrolean night sky, paid dividends. So what if his descriptions aren't cookie-cutter and unfailing? No two travel experiences are the same, and God forbid they ever will be.
Read this book. You'll shoot (insert beverage here) through your nose laughing and develop an ache to see Europe. Prost, Bill. |
The best of this author's many great books!
| Customer Rating: | Bill Bryson has written so many hilarious books that it's hard to say which is the funniest, but when I meet someone who is new to Bryson's work, again and again I find myself recommending this one.
The one-liners ("Italians park as if they've just spilled a beaker of hydrocloric acid in their laps") are funny no matter how well-travelled (or non-travelled) you are, and the prose is so descriptive and wonderful that you learn as you go along.
As far as I'm concerned Bill Bryson is the finest non-fiction writer of our time. |
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