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 mix. You can see Queen's English as well as American English in his writing, a trait I rather enjoy. He is at times annoying with his views, as an old man on his front porch, but then he's no spring chicken. Some of his writing are silly and happy memories from childhood, or experiences with his own children. Other occasions show his profound disappointment in the difference between England and America. One gets the feeling that, while he is a patriot, he's also a "red coat".

The articles are all short, a few pages at most, and makes for a quick read. I would definitely recommend this book to, well just about anyone.

3.5 stars rounded up.

About 5 years ago, I saw this book sitting on a dock somewhere. I was drawn in by the title. What sort of new perspectives could I gain from reading a book about new perspectives? Anyway, I made a mental note to read it soon, soon turning out to be five years later when I remember that it existed.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a collection of newspaper articles that Bill Bryson wrote about America. They start out mostly talking about how strange America is in comparison to England, where Bryson had lived with his family for the past 20 years. Fast food is different, as is late night TV and how towns are set up. However, the essays soon take on an analytical quality towards American Society, without really needing to draw comparisons anymore. Why do people keep gardens? What's the point of going to the beach? Why do our children grow up so fast?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Each article is just a few pages long and don't overstay their welcome. There's humor, heart, and sarcasm in appropriate doses, and even a bit of melancholy when you aren't expecting it. The real idea of it is, "Wow, America sure is weird!", so if you like that sort of juxtaposition, then you will like this book.

When I had first looked at this book five years ago, I had expected it to be more comparisons between Britain and America, but it's really not as much as you would expect. But that's fine, as I'm sure there are plenty of other books about that.

Who says you can't go home?

Bryson grew up in America, married his English wife and moved to England with her. Now, after 20 years across the pond, he moves back. And that's when things got weird.

n  Coming back to your native land after an absence of many years is a surprisingly unsettling business, a little like waking up from a long coma. Time, you discover, has wrought changes that leave you feeling mildly foolish and out of touch.n

I suppose I feel a milder version of this whenever I visit my parents or extended relatives. Reading his take on returning home was a delight and there were so many parts I could relate to.

As always, I enjoyed his colorful scenarios and contemplations. His signature dry humor was charming and engaging. How could you not enjoy such thoughtful musings such as:

n  Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead. n

His book certainly brings to light several "normal" things that Americans don't quite realize how out-of-the-ordinary they truly are:

n  In the United States, frozen cheese pizza is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Frozen pepperoni pizza, on the other hand, is regulated by the Department of Agriculture. n

This book was a bundle of joy. However, the spark that so charmed me at the beginning fizzled out - it just got a bit samey-samey.

Audiobook Comments
Great book (if I judged solely on the power of the voice (William Roberts)). The reader had excellent timing and tone.

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I just love Bill Bryson. Another silly, whimsical collection of hot takes, opinions, and observations on society; his time, he focuses on society in the United States. Some folks think Bryson is too judgy, but he includes himself in the judgement, so all is forgiven. What I didn't expect from this book is the political relevance that holds up. The book was written in the 90's, yet, Bryson still sings the same concerns so many of us have. One passage in a section about the wasteful habits of Americans touches on this:

"If global temperatures rise by four degrees Centigrade over the next half century, as some scientists confidently predict, then all of the trees of Shenandoah National Park and the Smokies, and for hundreds of miles beyond, will die. In two generations one of the last great forests of the temperate world will turn into featureless grassland. I think that's worth turning off a few computers for, don't you?"

It's a book that both criticizes and celebrates America, which is really the only way you can accurately judge a country, isn't it?

Even on audio, this is very obviously a collection of humourous 1990s newspaper columns - a category I know better than any non-media person under 50 probably should, on account of having been certain, as a teenager, that I wanted to be a journalist, and reading a lot of the things, whether collected in books, or in their native papers and magazines. There's a glibness these things tend to have, even under the pen of their better exponents, and that is certainly found in Notes From a Big Country.

In these columns, Bryson, by the time of writing now a well-known author - Notes From a Small Island (1995) was one of the bestselling books of the decade in the UK - is getting used to life back in the USA with his family after having lived in Britain for years. Among the discussions of differences between, and names of, DIY and homeware items on either side of the pond, the respective temperaments and cultures of the people, some very late 90s grumbles about tech - and occasional parodies and comedy sketches about soft targets, from tax forms to aristocrats on the Titanic - are a few serious subjects that remain all too relevant and current today. These include shockingly harsh sentencing for drug offences; racial bias in the justice system, especially capital punishment; difficulties with immigration bureaucracy (though back then Britain's was more relaxed than the US); and the excesses of American consumerism and energy use and their effects on the environment and natural resources. But you probably shouldn't pick up this book just for those, as the bulk of it is Bryson rambling on about daily life and his absent-minded, fairly ordinary middle aged self and family. As in Notes From a Small Island, he frequently recounts a level of irritation with customer service staff that nowadays might be considered bordering on abusive - if his anecdotes are actually true - but which in lighthearted writings such as these 25 years ago (and unfortunately in my own family at that time) was more or less normalised.

If he finds things in general so irksome, and travel itself so trying (he often has shambolic mishaps on the way) one may glibly wonder, as Bryson's wife does near the end of this volume, why he is a travel writer. But for a certain generation (see also Paul Theroux) this misanthropic streak, and proneness to mishap, seems to be part of the job description: it did, after all, give more to write about. The shambling still does, though these days writers, like everyone else, are expected to be somewhat better mannered.

William Roberts' readings of Bill Bryson are useful, jauntily companionable low-effort audiobooks, and several are on Audible's new 'included with membership' category, which if you were used to Audible when you had to pay for each book, basically translates to 'free'. I wouldn't have paid for the first one or two, nor probably even gone to the effort of downloading them from a public library, but in this context they are very useful and I am starting to value them more.

(October 2021)

I have literally 10 books sitting unfinished on my bedside table, and yet I read another bill bryson instead. Notes from a large country is composed of short essays mostly comparing (and complaining about - true Bryson style) living in america and the uk. It’s both extremely interesting and informative, as well as endlessly hilarious. In this regard, it is probably the most ‘bill bryson’ of all his books. Bryson complains about every facet of life in America (and in the uk. Or is it just life in general?), yet there is always an interesting take away or wholesome message at the end of each essay. Notes from a large country is also one of his most consumable reads due to the essay structure (it is a collection of articles he wrote for a uk newspaper). I picked it up for fun and didn’t even intend to finish this book, yet somehow we’re 400 pages later and I’m urging you to read it. In summary: highly consumable, very informative, and always funny.

About a quarter of the way through this, I realized that some things sounded rather familiar. It was only after searching on Good Reads, that I realized that I read this two years ago. Oh dear. A good friend had sent me a list of Bryson books to read in order. I'd taken careful note, but forgotten that I'd already read this one. Never mind. I loved it yet again and have given it 4 stars once more. One of my many favorite parts:

"The last time I arrived at Heathrow Airport, for instance, the official who checked my passport looked me over and asked: 'Are you that writer chap?' I was very pleased, as you can imagine, to be recognized. 'Why, yes I am,' I said proudly. 'Come over here to make some more money, have you?' he said with disdain and slid back my passport. You don't get much of that in the States. By and large, people have an almost instinctively positive attitude to life and its possibilities. If you informed an American that a massive asteroid was hurtling toward Earth at 125,000 miles an hour and that in twelve weeks the planet would be blown to smithereens, he would say: 'Really? In that case, I suppose I'd better sign up for that Mediterranean cooking course now.' If you informed a Briton of the same thing, he would say: 'Bloody typical, isn't it? And have you seen the weather forecast for the weekend?'"

This cracked me up!

Yet another one I reviewed earlier this yr and forgot to post!? Sheesh. I'm getting older/forgetful, not better.

Not as great as Road to Dribbling, another Bryson I read this year, but still very good. Bryson is hilarious and interesting.

A collection of essays Bryson wrote for a British audience, his observations from having moved back to America after living in England for two decades. The essays are of very uniform length, roughly 3 and half pages, so he was obviously cramped by minimum/maximum word requirements as well as that dreaded weekly deadline. They were written in the late 90s, so a few things, inescapably, are a trifle outdated (borrowing one of his favorite words: trifle. Which also is a spectacular dessert.) On occasion the last line seems overly predictable and/or forced—a small complaint. Very few of the essays bomb outright (Last Night on the Titanic), a small handful are just okay, but most of them are either informative, entertaining, and/or funny, usually all at the same time. Of the seven Bryson books I’ve read, I wouldn’t rank this one as high as Road to Dribbling, A Sunburnt Country, or A Walk In the Woods, but it’s still quite good. Good enough to re-read someday? Probably. Bryson is one of the few writers out there who is not only interesting but can make me laugh out loud.

Favorite Chapters: What’s Cooking; Well, Doctor … (the one on injuries suffered by Americans); The Numbers Game; Tales of the North Woods; Inefficiency Report (about the FAA and FDA; Why No One Walks; The Best American Holiday; Your Tax Form Explained; At the Drive-In (mostly or only because it spurred me to recall the title and plot of the last movie I saw at a drive-in, many-many decades ago, “Raymie”); The Great Indoors; Your New Computer.

Excerpts:
Here's a fact for you: According to the latest Statistical Abstract of the United States, every year more than 400,000 Americans suffer injuries involving beds, mattresses, or pillows.
------
Tonight," he began with enthusiasm, "we have a crepe galette of sea chortle and kelp in a rich mal de mer sauce, seasoned with disheveled herbs grown in our own herbarium. This is baked in an inverted Prussian helmet at gas mark 12 for 17 minutes and four seconds precisely, then layered with steamed wattle and woozle leaves. Very delicious, very audacious. We are also offering this evening a double rack of Rio Rocho cutlets, tenderized at your table by our own flamenco dancers, then baked in a clay dong for 27 minutes under a lattice of guava peel and sun-ripened stucco. For vegetarians, we have a medley of forest-floor sweetmeats gathered from our very own woodland dell."
And so it goes for anything up to half an hour. My wife, who is more sophisticated than I, is not fazed by pretentious terminology. Her problem is trying to keep straight the more bewildering of options. She will listen carefully, then say: "I'm sorry, is it the squib that's pan-seared and presented on a bed of organic spoletto?"
"No, that in fact is the baked donkling," says the serving person. "The squib comes as a quarter-cut hank, lightly rolled in payapaya and tossed with oil of olay and calamine, and presented on a bed of chaff beans and snoose noodles." ....
“Just bring me something that's been clubbed,'' I wanted to say ….
I turned to the waiter with a plaintive look. “Do have anything that once belonged to a cow?”
He gave a stiff nod. “Certainly, sir. We can offer you a 16-ounce suprème de boeuf, incised by our own butcher from the fore flank of a corn-fed Holstein raised on our own Montana ranch, then slow-grilled over palmetto and buffalo chips at a temperature of . . .”
“Are you describing a steak?” I asked, perking up.
“Not a term we care to use, sir, but yes.”
----
(Re: the national debt, which apparently was a mere $4.5 Trillion then)

What does $4.5 trillion actually mean? Well, let’s just try to grasp the concept of $1 trillion. Imagine you were in a vault filled with dollar bills and that you were told you could keep each one you initialed, (that) you could initial one dollar bill per second and that you worked straight through without ever stopping. How long do you think it would take to count a trillion dollars? Go on, humor me and take a guess. Twelve weeks? Two years? Five?
If you initialed one dollar per second, you would make $1,000 every seventeen minutes. After 12 days of nonstop effort you would acquire your first $1 million. Thus, it would take you 120 days to accumulate $10 million and 1,200 days— something over three years—to reach $100 million. After 31.7 years you would become a billionaire, and after almost a thousand years you would be as wealthy as Bill Gates. But not until after 31,709.8 years would you count your trillionth dollar (and even then you would be less than one-fourth of the way through the pile of money representing America’s national debt). That is what $1 trillion is.”
----
First half of "Your Tax Form Explained". Brilliantly hilarious—oh and also not as outdated as you might suspect) :

Enclosed is your 1998 United States Internal Revenue Service Tax Form 1040-ES OCR: “Estimated Tax for Self-Employed Individuals.” You may use this form to estimate your 1998 fiscal year tax IF:

1. You are the head of a household AND the sum of the ages of your spouse and dependents, minus the ages of qualifying pets (see Schedule 12G), is divisible by a whole number. (Use Supplementary Schedule 142C if pets are deceased but buried on your property.)

2. Your Gross Adjusted Income does not exceed your Adjusted Gross Income (except where applicable) AND you did not pay taxable interest on dividend income prior to 1903.

3. You are not claiming a foreign tax credit, except as a “foreign” tax credit. (Warning: Claiming a foreign tax credit for a foreign “tax” credit, except where a foreign “tax credit” is involved, may result in a fine of $125,000 and 25 years’ imprisonment.)

4. You are one of the following: married and filing jointly; married and not filing jointly; not married and not filing jointly; jointed but not filing; other.

INSTRUCTIONS

Type all answers in ink with a number two lead pencil. Do not cross anything out. Do not use abbreviations or ditto marks. Do not misspell “miscellaneous.” Write your name, address, and social security number, and the name, address, and social security numbers of your spouse and dependents, in full on each page twice. Do not put a check mark in a box marked “cross” or a cross in a box marked “check mark” unless it is your express wish to do the whole thing again. Do not write “Search me” in any blank spaces. Do not make anything up.

Complete Sections 47 to 52 first, then proceed to even-numbered sections and complete in reverse order. Do NOT use this form if your total pensions and annuities disbursements were greater than your advanced earned income credits OR vice versa.

Under “Income,” list all wages, salaries, net foreign source taxable income, royalties, tips, gratuities, taxable interest, capital gains, air miles, and money found down the back of the sofa. If your earnings are derived wholly, or partially but not primarily, or wholly AND partially but not primarily, from countries other than the United States (if uncertain, see USIA Leaflet 212W, “Countries That Are Not the United States”) OR your rotated gross income from Schedule H was greater than your earned income credit on nontaxable net disbursements, you MUST include a Grantor/Transferor Waiver Voucher. Failure to do so may result in a fine of $1,500,000 and seizure of a child.

Under Section 890f, list total farm income (if none, give details). If you were born after January 1, 1897, and are NOT a widow(er), include excess casualty losses and provide carry over figures for depreciation on line 27iii. You MUST list number of turkeys slaughtered for export. Subtract, but do not deduct, net gross dividends from pro rata interest payments, multiply by the total number of steps in your home, and enter on line 356d.

On Schedule F1001, line c, list the contents of your garage. Include all electrical and nonelectrical items on Schedule 295D, but DO NOT include electrical OR nonelectrical items not listed on Supplementary Form 243d.

edit: Found this later, seems to be the entire text of this chapter.
https://sabrutat.blogspot.com/2010/04...

I normally love Bill Bryson's books. Unfortunately, I could swear this one was written by Andy Rooney.

Bill Bryson moves back to America after living in England for 20 years, and writes a weekly column for the two first years wherein he described every day things and events in his life. Later he turned these columns into a book, and called it "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"

I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those that have (like me) traveled to America and found it amazing and wonderful and strange and awful, all at the same time. Also, if you possibly can, do try to find the Audio Book read by the author himself. It makes it come alive that much more :)

It's a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek humored book which gently pokes fun at the American way of life, all the while depicting just how great it is!

A delightful collection of random articles all concerning USA. As always I kept chuckling at inappropriate moments, not caring if I looked crazy. Great fun!