Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0-380-71380-2 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (108 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Irony in Italy...
Comment: I just returned from a Eurail trip, through Europe of all places, last week. I had never heard of Bill Bryson before I left, but I met this girl laughing out loud in a London Youth Hostel. She was reading Brysons book about travelling through the States and highly recommended it to me. Unfortunately I was on my way out of London that day and never got to a bookstore, but the name stuck in my mind. Four countries later (having looked in Spanish and Portugese bookstores) I was desperately in need of something more to read than my Let's Go and Thomas Cook (which I was near having completely memorized). Lucky for me I was in Gibraltar where I found a nice little english bookstore. Fortunately they didn't have "Travels...", but had this other book "Neither Here, Nor There." Since it was about Europe it only made sense to buy this book and have a go at it. Having just previously been or been close to all of the places he highlights, I absolutely busted a gut every time I read a chapter or two. I was throughly enjoying this book and looking forward to fininshing it in tandem with finishing my own trip, when something ironic occured in Italy. I had just been reading the chapter (laughing of course!) where Bryson gets pickpocketed in the Italian quarter of Switzerland; that night I was on a train to Rome when my backpack was nicked from underneath me. Despite losing really really important stuff, I also lost "Neither Here, Nor There." I couldn't help but think of Brysons similar situation which I had just read, thinking of this made my situation all the more funny, despite not being able to finish my trip. The main point here, although this is not your regular review format, is that Bryson is an extremely witty writer and right on in his assesment/observations of Europe and its people. Newsweek would say "Brillianly Funny!" I just say if you've been to Europe, or know anything about it, read this book. It doesn't matter if you've been to all the places or not, you'll still be crying by the end each chapter! One word of caution; if you take this book along and read it on your trip, he may rub off on you as you write in your own journal. You'll begin to see places through a slighlty distorted, although humorous, lens. I even started to write a bit like him. In any case enjoy, and happy travels! Oh yes, I would probably give this book a five star rating, but I still haven't read the last few chapters; so all I can say were that 4/5 of this book were excellent!
Rating: 5
Summary: No need to get in a fuss-this truly is a hilarious read!
Comment: I believe there are more than enough reviews here to decifer whether or not you plan to read this charming, witty and candid book. However, as an Australian raised in both Europe and America, I must heed a warning to those of you who read the negative reviews by Europeans and Asians. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!! They obviously lack a sense of humour and the ability to laugh at themselves (unlike Bryson). Bryson can be provincial at times, but he is so charming indeed! One who has traveled for days in a foreign land can understand his exhaustion and frustration and will howl with laughter.
Yes, Bryson at times can be brutally honest with his opinion of foreign countries and their inhabitants and culture, but they are HIS OPINIONS and they are frankly FUNNY and quite observant. I suppose those who take offense to his opinions neglected to understand that Bryson is a brazen self critic and will unabashedly admit to his lack of sophistication due to his stereotypical midwestern American upbringing. Please take no notice to the malevolence of the quazi-sensitive and humourless French and Germans who negatively reviewed this charming and engaging work.
Give the man a break and give this book a READ...Unless you possess absolutely no sense of humour, you will find it quite enjoyable!
Rating: 4
Summary: Rucksack traveling through Europe.
Comment: "Traveling is more fun," Bill Bryson (aka "Bernt Bjornson") observes in this hilarious account of his backpack travels through Europe, "hell, life is more fun--if you can treat it as a series of impulses" (p. 131). After first backpacking through Britain, Ireland, Scandanavia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy in 1972 (p. 13), as a "skinny, shy" 20-year-old American from Iowa, lost in "private astonishment" (p. 20), and then returning with Stephan Katz (Bryson's memorable hiking companion in A WALK IN THE WOODS) the following summer (p. 20), Bryson attempts to recapture that experience nearly twenty years later in NEITHER HERE NOR THERE. Bryson lived in England for fifteen years before setting out on his midlife pilgrimage from Hammerfest, Norway to Oslo, Paris, Brussels, Belgium, Cologne, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan, Como, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Yugoslavia, Sofia and Istanbul. While the result is characteristic Bryson, this book doesn't quite hit the mark of some of Bryson's other books (e.g., A WALK IN THE WOODS, A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND), primarily for the following reason.
Somewhere along the way, Bryson lost his sense of "private astonishment" for Europe. Wherever he travels in this book, and as hard has he tries, Bryson is unable to recapture his youthful sense of wonder for Europe again; it is neither here nor there. As a result, and as numerous other reviewers have previously noted, this is the travel narrative of a xenophobic tourist, who finds very little to praise about his experience traveling through Europe. Instead, we find Bryson tramping through Europe, rather indistinguishable from the hordes of other boorish tourists who overrun major tourist destinations like Paris, Florence, Brussels, Stockholm, Rome, in search of inexpensive American food like burgers and beer, offering us very few original insights along the way, attempting instead to entertain us with sophomoric and mean-spirited humor. While many rucksack travelers (including me) have known the "private astonishment" Bryson experienced while traveling through Europe in his younger years, few readers would ever want to visit the Europe Bryson has described in this book.
G. Merritt
 |
Title: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0380727501 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0060920084 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 12 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson ISBN: 076790382X Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767903862 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 15 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767902521 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
