Thursday, March 11, 2010

Bill Bryson- Neither Here Nor There

In this novel, Bill Bryson writes down his recent travel across Europe, revisiting places he'd been to as a teenager- including the restaurant he and his wife had eaten at during their first honeymoon. He includes his personal- and strong- opinions of just about everyone, everything, and everywhere in the trip in the funniest ways imaginable (though some readers may occasionally find a rather offensive comment within the book). The reader of this article may like to note that there is a bit of an abundance of swear words within the book's 250 or so pages.
This is definitely one of the funniest non-fiction books in existence. Bill Bryson's informal and sarcastic style presents all his personal accounts and memories in an incredibly funny manner (e.g. "I was sitting beside the heater, so that while chill drafts teased my upper extremities, my left leg grew so hot that I could hear the hairs on it crackle. The seats were designed by a dwarf seeking revenge on full- sized people; there was no other explanation"). I haven't exactly finished reading the book yet, but that's be one of my favorite quotes so far.
As a message to all readers who do not yet believe that a simple travel book could 'out-funny' a bookful of jokes compiled by a bunch of experienced comedians, read this at all cost. It will literally instantly erase all preassumptions that non-fiction books have to be dull and purely informative texts.
A highly recommended book.

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