by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is enough of a phenomenon that it seems like I should have read one of his books before now. After all he has, nearly singlehandedly, repopularized travel writing, and I love traveling. Yet somehow there have always been other things to read, and, when I did pick his books up, I found myself not in the mood for them. It wasn't him, it was me.
This attempt was more successful and I managed to immerse in this collection of short essays Bryson wrote for the London Times about American culture. I started the book somewhere in Virginia and spent most of the rest of the trip to Maine happily NIB (nose in book). Each of the essays is about three pages long and they cover a mass of eclectic topics ranging from the fate of the traditional American diner to the nature of convenience in American culture. They are quick, pithy, and full of a charming self-deprecating humor. If the rest of Bryson's books are of a similar caliber, I will happily plough through them as well.
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