Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
by Authors:
BILL BRYSON
Paperback
Average Customer Rating:
Bottom drawer Bryson
This book is called Notes from a Big Country in Canada, presumably to cash in on the popularity of the author's Notes from a Small Island. This book is not in the same category as its namesake. It is just a collection of reviews written over two years (6 Oct 1996 to 17 May 1998 to be precise) for a British newspaper, offering various gripes about life in America. The book simply reproduces the columns chronologically, and as a result there is no overall organization. The Canadian edition that I read was appallingly poorly copy edited, which is ironic given Bryson's scruples about the English language. Some of the columns are funny, and some (especially one about the sinking of the Titanic) are just plain awful. In sum, this is not nearly as good as Bryson's other books, but still has enough humour to keep you reading to the end.
Like Paul Thoreux on nitrous oxide
Bill Bryson's talent for ferreting out the odd and humorous from the stuff of everyday life has been entertaining his readers for a number of years. While spending the better part of two decades in Great Britain, he wrote travel memoirs ("Notes From A Small Island," "The Lost Continent") and books on the English language ("The Mother Tongue," "Made in America"). After he removed his family to Hanover, N.H., he wrote "A Walk in the Wood," his hilarious and sometimes sobering account of his attempts to hike the Appalachian Trail.
As if that wasn't enough, he was also writing a weekly column for a British newspaper, and he has gathered 70 of these into "I'm A Stranger Here Myself."
As a humor columnist, Bryson shares many similarities with Dave Barry. He has the ability to see the odd and unusual, things that we may not see or simply take for granted. He finds the toll-free number on the box of dental floss and wonders why anyone would call it ("OK, I got the floss. Now what?"), remembers the road trips his family made in an America before the chain gangs like Holiday Inn and Cracker Barrel got to it, ("Visit World Famous Atomic Rock -- It Really Glows!"), or muses on the suitability of "Live Free or Die," the New Hampshire state motto on his license plate ("Frankly, I would prefer something a little more equivocal and less terminal -- "Live Free or Pout" perhaps.")
But Bryson has something that Barry doesn't: attitude. The ability to see is a two-edged sword. People may not always appreciate what you have to say about them. Going for a walk on a beautiful day, he notices how many drivers have their windows rolled up, how we want to shop in enclosed malls, work in temperature-controlled offices, to the absurdity of dressing up in exercise clothes and driving to the mall in order to walk there. His visit to the Opryland Hotel, with its "flawless, aseptic, self-contained world, with a perfect unvarying climate and an absence of messy birds, annoying insects, irksome and unpredictable weather, or indeed any kind of reality," reminded him of '50s art in Popular Science describing a space colony on Venus: "Or at least what it would be like if all the space colonists were overweight middle-aged people in Nike sneakers and baseball caps who spent their lives walking around eating handheld food."
Bryson also attacks the American shopping experience, our simultaneous obsession with dieting and eating fatty foods, the vacuousness of cable television and our overabundance of choice ("there is too much of every single thing that one could possibly want or need except time, money, good plumbers, and people who say thank you when you hold open a door for them." Bryson can be as cranky as Paul Thoreoux, but you'll take it with a smile.
An American Portrait
After reading and enjoying "Notes From a Small Island," I was looking forward to Bryson's witticisms in regards to every day life in America. Although an American, having spent twenty odd years in England gives Bryson a unique perspective on what makes America, and Americans, tick. "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" is a collection of essays Bryson wrote for an English audience; but they lack none of their charm when read by an Anglophile American.
"I'm a Stranger Here Myself" is and odd conglomeration of essays that deal with a range of topics: small-town America, shopping, the inconvenience of our numerous "conveniences", and several entries on his own ineptness when it comes to technology. In each of his essays Bryson is a bit of a wanderer, starting in one direction, only to go off on a tangent. Usually he's able to bring himself back to the point, and can even poke fun at himself for doing so. His wanderings are what sets his style and what generates the largest laughs or head shakes of disbelief.
While Bryson is at times critical of what happens in America, "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" is a loving portrait of a revered country. However, Bryson's perspective is one of a man living a blessed life. He now resides in a virtually crime-free small New Hampshire town and grew up in small-town Iowa. His essays sometimes lack the experiences that growing up or residing in other areas might offer. However, due to his extensive travels, Bryson's perspective is truly unique and a joy to read.
Can't find what you're looking for? Then try Google.
DVD's
Bottom drawer Bryson 
An American Portrait 
