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This book made me laugh. I used to think that funny books were not funny to me; I don't even laugh at the Sunday comics. I am often not sure if they are really supposed to make you laugh or not. Maybe they are since my husband often reads me the ones he finds funny.
Then I wondered how Bill Bryson came up with this stuff that happens to him on his vacation. I came to the conclusion that he thinks of something that could happen and runs with it. I say this because my husband and I just took a two week trip across half of America by car and nothing funny happened to us. I just now thought about how I could make my own journal of our trip funny. I really couldn't, because I only came up with this: We drove through the everglades on a two lane dusty road, and there were alligators on each side of the road. We stopped and got out when we saw a turtle being pecked at by vultures. So far true.
What would happen if an alligator appeared? Maybe one is hiding as they are all over the place. We saved the turtle when I placed him near the swamp, which I had actually done, but now the fantasy: "An alligator grabbed my arm. My husband dragged me to the road, but it was too late". Now this isn't even funny. See, my mind does terror, not funny. I worried about our car breaking down and no one else was on the road. I worried that we might have to walk to the main highway, highway 41. And my husband joked: And you fell and twisted your ankle, and then fire ants began eating the flesh off your hand. See, I don't think of funny, but my husband was funny because he enlarged upon my fears in a more unrealistic way, a way that made me laugh.
Bill Bryson's kind of funny was when a friend of his got pigeon poop on his head, went back to the hotel to clean up, came back in twenty minutes smelling of Brut cologne, got poop on his head again and went back to the hotel and came back an hour later wearing a hoodie. Somehow that story of his wasn't too funny, but I could see it even if I didn't believe it.
I prefer a travel book where someone talks about the people they meet and the places that they have visited--a heartwarming book or even a scary one. Still, this light read was good, and I especially liked reading it at bedtime when I read books that I don't have to think about and that make me sleepy in the long run. Now, I do have to say that the book I loved most of his, so far was, "A Walk in the Woods." Now I can make up terrorizing bear stories with that book.
Then I wondered how Bill Bryson came up with this stuff that happens to him on his vacation. I came to the conclusion that he thinks of something that could happen and runs with it. I say this because my husband and I just took a two week trip across half of America by car and nothing funny happened to us. I just now thought about how I could make my own journal of our trip funny. I really couldn't, because I only came up with this: We drove through the everglades on a two lane dusty road, and there were alligators on each side of the road. We stopped and got out when we saw a turtle being pecked at by vultures. So far true.
What would happen if an alligator appeared? Maybe one is hiding as they are all over the place. We saved the turtle when I placed him near the swamp, which I had actually done, but now the fantasy: "An alligator grabbed my arm. My husband dragged me to the road, but it was too late". Now this isn't even funny. See, my mind does terror, not funny. I worried about our car breaking down and no one else was on the road. I worried that we might have to walk to the main highway, highway 41. And my husband joked: And you fell and twisted your ankle, and then fire ants began eating the flesh off your hand. See, I don't think of funny, but my husband was funny because he enlarged upon my fears in a more unrealistic way, a way that made me laugh.
Bill Bryson's kind of funny was when a friend of his got pigeon poop on his head, went back to the hotel to clean up, came back in twenty minutes smelling of Brut cologne, got poop on his head again and went back to the hotel and came back an hour later wearing a hoodie. Somehow that story of his wasn't too funny, but I could see it even if I didn't believe it.
I prefer a travel book where someone talks about the people they meet and the places that they have visited--a heartwarming book or even a scary one. Still, this light read was good, and I especially liked reading it at bedtime when I read books that I don't have to think about and that make me sleepy in the long run. Now, I do have to say that the book I loved most of his, so far was, "A Walk in the Woods." Now I can make up terrorizing bear stories with that book.
