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I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
by
Bill Bryson
After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave panca...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
May 13th 2008
by Broadway
(first published 1998)
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This is the first Bill Bryson book I have read, which, I am told, was a mistake. I know several people who consider Bryson one of their favorite authors and they all seem to agree that this book is not a good "ambassador" for the rest of his work.
This book is a collection of newspaper articles that document his move from England to the United States. Most of them explain his bewilderment toward American culture and customs and often longs for the "simplicity" of ...more
This book is a collection of newspaper articles that document his move from England to the United States. Most of them explain his bewilderment toward American culture and customs and often longs for the "simplicity" of ...more
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Bill Bryson grew up in Iowa, then spent twenty years in England. He has returned to the U.S. with his British wife and children. I'm a Stranger Here is selections from his newspaper column which chronicles his experiences. Some of them are funny, like "Dying Accents" and "The Best American Holiday". Others, particularly anything is which he tries to mock the writing style on instructional booklets, electronics, the government (I'm all for mocking the government, but he just d...more
If you like reading brief, amusing but unrelated snippets about the oddities of life, this may be the book for you. There’s nothing very original in it, but some readers no doubt enjoy the empathy of saying “Oh, I’ve always thought that too”.
It’s a collection of short articles written for a weekly British news magazine about adapting to life in the US, after 20 years living in Britain – comparing the two countries and comparing the US of his youth with the version he now finds himsel...more
It’s a collection of short articles written for a weekly British news magazine about adapting to life in the US, after 20 years living in Britain – comparing the two countries and comparing the US of his youth with the version he now finds himsel...more
Bill Bryson, I'm a Stranger Here Myself (Broadway Books, 1999)
At funtrivia.com, one of the (many) ways a quiz can go from a relatively high ranking to "very poor" between the time I start and the time I finish is a factual error that causes me to get a question wrong. Research is a beautiful thing.
Half of me is willing to give Bill Bryson the benefit of the doubt; the other half is ready to excoriate him on what may be a false impression. I'll attempt to keep it res...more
At funtrivia.com, one of the (many) ways a quiz can go from a relatively high ranking to "very poor" between the time I start and the time I finish is a factual error that causes me to get a question wrong. Research is a beautiful thing.
Half of me is willing to give Bill Bryson the benefit of the doubt; the other half is ready to excoriate him on what may be a false impression. I'll attempt to keep it res...more
This is the first Bill Bryson book I have read and I found it laugh out loud funny. My husband was given it as a christmas gift and when he started reading it kept reading bits out to me because he thought they were so funny. We gave up on that approach and started reading it together and both loved it. Some of that might have been that we have just moved back to Australia from the US and enjoyed the reminders of some of the more quirky aspects of US culture that we miss, and also could relat...more
I rated this a little lower than other books by Bryson because it shows the constraints of being a collection of newspaper columns, written to a length limit and a deadline. That said, there were some real gems in the mix. The column about re-learning an adult vernacular (spackle? Polyfiller?) was good for a laugh - at the time, I was struggling with the same thing over infants' paraphernalia (diaper? nappy?) because despite having lived in the US for years, I hadn't had to use those words since...more
I read this several years ago, so I have no idea what it was about. But I do know that I have LOVED every Bill Bryson book that I have ever even seen, let alone read.
I think Bill Bryson is very cool. I'd like him to be my neighbor. He could write stories about me. Like "I have this neighbor who stands in her garden and chats with her plants. She introduces the new ones when they arrive. She asks everybody how they are doing and if they are thirsty. Boy, she sure is a gr...more
I think Bill Bryson is very cool. I'd like him to be my neighbor. He could write stories about me. Like "I have this neighbor who stands in her garden and chats with her plants. She introduces the new ones when they arrive. She asks everybody how they are doing and if they are thirsty. Boy, she sure is a gr...more
As an expat about to return to the US, this book simply wasn't Weird enough for me. It in no way captures my experience of how completely absurd the US feels upon returning after an extended absence.
Obsessions with skinny white girls named Jessica; the unbelievable noise, especially from radio and TV; un-ending ads for stuff on sale (which exist in other places, but when it's in another language, I just tune it out); the fact that no one walks anywhere; the enormous bodies(quitting ...more
Obsessions with skinny white girls named Jessica; the unbelievable noise, especially from radio and TV; un-ending ads for stuff on sale (which exist in other places, but when it's in another language, I just tune it out); the fact that no one walks anywhere; the enormous bodies(quitting ...more
Today I had a doctor's appointment and that is when I remembered I am also reading this book. It is a series of humorous columns written by the author detailing his experience returning to the US. It makes for quick reading and is good when I am somewhere busy like a waiting room or airport.
Well, it took several doctor's appointments and a hospital stay but I finally finished the book. The time it took me to read is no reflection on the quality of the book. Bryson is an outstandin...more
Well, it took several doctor's appointments and a hospital stay but I finally finished the book. The time it took me to read is no reflection on the quality of the book. Bryson is an outstandin...more
I think the idea behind this book was good, but I had my doubts about it. Its a shame that the articles contained within seem really far off the mark. A lot of the points brought up in I'm a Stranger Here Myself really aren't much better then the topics that come up during the comedy routine of a mediocre stand up comedian. It's a lot of observational humor from the view point of someone who hasn't been in country for nearly two decades; observational humor that had already been done to death...more
OK, I read this book on a plane back to Poland after a 3 1/2 week visit back to my hometown in the United States. So I was probably a perfect audience for this particular brand of humor...that is, the hilarity you can find in your own culture if you look at it with the fresh eyes of someone who is now accustomed to a very different life. Some of the laughter comes from anger. It really can set your teeth on edge to see your home country going down a path that you feel is destructive when the ...more
Bill Bryson is always a delight, and this one proved even more delightful than most. Those familiar with his breezy, pithy style will find this brimming with all the breeze and pith they have come to expect. He has an uncanny knack for pointing out the absurdities that surround us, to make people stop and think, if only for a moment, and make them laugh at the same time, ameliorating the painful sting that normally accompanies any arduous thinking. What makes it even better is that the essays in...more
Whereas this is a fun series of essays with a number of interesting cultural and societal observations, what’s missing - in my mind - is the compilation or consilience of a number of issues within one broad topic. I’ve so far read Bryson’s books on Home and Nearly Everything and what’s striking about those offerings is his non-scholarly take on multifarious histories, anecdotes, systems, etc. that more or less ties all of the content together into comprehensive wholes. Here the author is compili...more
A wonderfully poignant collection of Bryson's published news paper article. After twenty years in England, where he married and had his children, Bryson returns to America to an interesting version of culture shock. We follow him over a few years worth of articles as he reeducates himself with the strange ways of Americana. Everything from a day at the beach to children leaving the nest, Bryson shows us his world, both intimate and familiar.
His style is humorous and quirky, a lovely m...more
His style is humorous and quirky, a lovely m...more
I feel a little mean as I give this two stars, but I like Bill Bryson a lot and just can't rate this at the same level as some of his others.
It's a perfectly fun book of columns Bryson wrote for two years for a British newspaper magazine supplement, after returning to America from Britain with his British wife and their children. He settled in New Hampshire, and began to write (for a British audience, remember) of the rediscovery of his homeland, many years after he had left it.
...more
It's a perfectly fun book of columns Bryson wrote for two years for a British newspaper magazine supplement, after returning to America from Britain with his British wife and their children. He settled in New Hampshire, and began to write (for a British audience, remember) of the rediscovery of his homeland, many years after he had left it.
...more
Anne Keefe
added it
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
By: Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson was born in America and then went to Europe. While over there, he got married and started a family and then decided to move back to his home country. His 288 page book pokes fun at everything American. Everything.
Post Office Appreciation Day: A day where they serve their customers bagels and coffee as a thank you for your business. The other 364 days out of the ...more
By: Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson was born in America and then went to Europe. While over there, he got married and started a family and then decided to move back to his home country. His 288 page book pokes fun at everything American. Everything.
Post Office Appreciation Day: A day where they serve their customers bagels and coffee as a thank you for your business. The other 364 days out of the ...more
I started out totally in love with this book. The first quarter of it made me laugh out loud literally. I enjoyed Bill Bryson's droll humor and observations on American life. It cracked me up that he writes about the joy of having a garbage disposal and the annoying questions on the immigration paperwork. The chapter on all of the bizarre accidents Americans get into including 142,000 visitors to the ER as a result of "clothing injuries" was hysterical. I liked his quips about the war ...more
I'm a Stranger Here Myself (published as Notes from a Big Country in the UK) is the only thing I've read by Bryson, yet I'm confident declaring that absolutely anything else he has written is probably better. I typically don't finish the books I would give one star, but this is fast reading and all I had at poolside one day. While I found this text borderline reprehensible, I suspect Bryson's work in general might even be good; but this isn't. Here are some of my problems: half the essays re...more
Apparently, this is taken from a column Bill was writing when he returned from England (where he was living for 20 years of his adult life) back to his home country of America.
For the most part the book's chapters (each about 3 and a half pages) muse on about the culture shock of how much things have changed since his youth, and how different things are in comparison to the way of the Britons. Of course, this is done with great humorous jest and observation (and frustration).
...more
For the most part the book's chapters (each about 3 and a half pages) muse on about the culture shock of how much things have changed since his youth, and how different things are in comparison to the way of the Britons. Of course, this is done with great humorous jest and observation (and frustration).
...more
I always really want to love Bill Bryson, but never can quite get there, he's like the best friend you want to fall in love with, but just doesn't have the magic. Usually I get about halfway or even (on a good day) three-quarters of the way through his books and I start to find him annoying or repetitive. This, I had less issue with...as it's a collection of his newspaper columns, so they're short vignettes, and difficult to get tired halfway through. Also, I read this one sporadically over se...more
I like Bill Bryson. Let me just start it that way.
This one, though, was kind of boring. It started strong. I'd say the first 40 pages were great. I laughed out loud and all that. But, then it degenerated into some really formulaic, well-worn territory. Observations about complicated computer instructions, how his wife forced him onto some exaggerated diet, excessive paperwork can be excessive, etc. Even the overly familiar stuff had decent moments, but what stood out were all ...more
This one, though, was kind of boring. It started strong. I'd say the first 40 pages were great. I laughed out loud and all that. But, then it degenerated into some really formulaic, well-worn territory. Observations about complicated computer instructions, how his wife forced him onto some exaggerated diet, excessive paperwork can be excessive, etc. Even the overly familiar stuff had decent moments, but what stood out were all ...more
Contains such fascinating tidbits as:
VCRs: Needlessly complicated!
Americans: Friendlier, fatter than Brits!
Kids these days: not what they used to be!
And yet I chuckled on nearly every page. So sue me.
VCRs: Needlessly complicated!
Americans: Friendlier, fatter than Brits!
Kids these days: not what they used to be!
And yet I chuckled on nearly every page. So sue me.
Mupples
rated it
"Bill Bryson makes writing look too easy." -USA Today
That was a snippet review on the back of my copy from the library. My first thought was 'Wait, what? How is that a compliment?' Then I thought 'Oh, God, it's not going to be that good. The last thing I want to read is lazybate writing.'
Fortunately, it wasn't that bad.
What the book suffered from was content issues. Articles that were too short, or had too much "joking humor" (got old). Th...more
That was a snippet review on the back of my copy from the library. My first thought was 'Wait, what? How is that a compliment?' Then I thought 'Oh, God, it's not going to be that good. The last thing I want to read is lazybate writing.'
Fortunately, it wasn't that bad.
What the book suffered from was content issues. Articles that were too short, or had too much "joking humor" (got old). Th...more
Overall I think I like Bryson's book-length writing better than his Dave-Barry-like short articles, but there are still plenty of great moments.
He makes small-town New Hampshire sound super charming. I'm jealous.
The chapter on obscure presidents is great too.
And the bits about flying are dated in a way that makes me really miss pre-9/11 airport procedures. For example it's adorable to read how confused he felt the first time he had to show ID at the airport! Also he mentions how M...more
He makes small-town New Hampshire sound super charming. I'm jealous.
The chapter on obscure presidents is great too.
And the bits about flying are dated in a way that makes me really miss pre-9/11 airport procedures. For example it's adorable to read how confused he felt the first time he had to show ID at the airport! Also he mentions how M...more
I picked this up after finishing A Walk in the Woods, which I had greatly enjoyed. I thought a book about Bryson's reaction to coming back to America after living in England for so long would be interesting.
It wasn't.
Well, not really. It started out interesting enough, but then it went downhill. Frankly, it felt less like a comparison on various aspects of living in America and England and more like the rambling of a bitter old man. It was like my grandfather had decided ...more
It wasn't.
Well, not really. It started out interesting enough, but then it went downhill. Frankly, it felt less like a comparison on various aspects of living in America and England and more like the rambling of a bitter old man. It was like my grandfather had decided ...more
Another Bryson book, A Walk in the Woods, was recommended to me... seven years ago?? whew. Never made it to the top of my reading list anyway, but I grabbed this off the floor from Bill's (Kurtz, not Bryson) stack when he wasn't looking. It's a compilation of a weekly newspaper column Bryson wrote for 2-3 years, so there's nice seasonal progression through it and you see him as he gets more and more familiar with living in the US again. It's great!
Somewhere I saw Bryson described as a cros...more
Somewhere I saw Bryson described as a cros...more
This was a collection of columns Bryson syndicated in the States that chronicled his return to his native land, albeit to New Hampshire instead of Iowa. I seemed to remember a couple of them from the Mail on Sunday, espescially the one that lambasted the endless choice given to American consumers. Too much choice is worse than almost none at all, as he points out.
Bryson is a warm, cuddly companion who, you begin to wish, would have a bit of a turn, and say what he really thinks. Actually, i...more
Bryson is a warm, cuddly companion who, you begin to wish, would have a bit of a turn, and say what he really thinks. Actually, i...more
This was the first Bill Bryson book that I read back in 2000. It was particularly relevant to me since I was a newcomer to the USA having spent the first 30 plus years of my life in England. Bill Bryson had been away in England for 20 years and so had a unique perspective of American life when he returned. He could contrast it with England and also see the biggest changes when he compared it to the USA he left as a younger man. I suspect that when I eventually return to England (which I haven't ...more
Received an old, decrepit copy on request from BCL. It seems to be collection of columns Bill Bryson wrote about his move from England to US. I always maintain Bill Bryson is funny in parts. Some of his columns about America's love of rules, love for idea of convenience (half the convenience products are actually inconvenient, drive-in window takes more time in queue than going in and eating, no one walks etc etc), inefficiency, love to sue anybody and everybody, general stupidity and dumb instr...more
Bryson is a gifted writer, but this book, a collection of columns he wrote for a British weekly when he moved to Hanover, NH after living in England for twenty years, is about as cohesive as any such collection can be, which is to say, it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong; it is still worth reading. It is funny, often gut-bustingly so, and contains many delightful chapters: How to Have Fun at Home , in which Bryson discusses how to achieve the “richest, throatiest sound” or the most satisfying “Vesuvius...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readjusting to life in the U.S. | 1 | 17 | 03 sett. 18:26 | |
| true to the story | 1 | 23 | 25 gen. 09:10 |
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Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
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“Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.”
—
68 people liked it
“Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it is amazing how little time we take to remark upon this singular and gratifying fact. By the most astounding stroke of luck an infinitesimal portion of all the matter in the universe came together to create you and for the tiniest moment in the great span of eternity you have the incomparable privilege to exist.”
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