Again, I love Bill Bryson. I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away isn’t really a travel diary like many of his other works, but it does deal with the interesting case of culture shock wherein an American returns to his homeland after living in England for 20 years. The book is actually a collection of weekly magazine columns he did at the time, so you get a wide variety of topics for him to jeer and cheer over –everything from junk food to post offices to tax forms to frivilous lawsuits. So it’s nice that you get a lot of variety instead of Bryson’s just stretching out a walk through the countryside and commenting on various features of the cultural and literal landscape. That’s not to say that Bryson doesn’t take a few well-deserved jabs at American culture –that’s largely the point of the book. He does it, however, with his usual curmudgeonly-but-lovable style.
And it’s funny. Very funny, really. I erupted into snorting laughter several times while listening to this audiobook, which earned me a few worried looks when I was out in public. For example, while discussing the absurdly draconian laws proposed by Newt Gingritch to curb drug use, Bryson quips that if put in charge of such things, his opening salvo in the war on drugs would be simple: “First, I would make it a criminal offense to be Newt Gingrich.”
See also: my posts on A Short History of Nearly Everything and Notes from a Small Island.
I just finished “The Lost Continent” and found it to be too funny. I was reading it on the plane and would laugh out loud much to the dismay of my fellow passengers who were trying to sleep.
Loved it as well! Thanks for all the great read recommendations, Jamie.