![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
100 Books, #37: I’m a Stranger Here Myself
Feb. 6th, 2014 08:41 amBill Bryson was once my secret authorial love. I adore his books and await each new one eagerly, but until this year I didn’t have anyone to share them with. This year, however! This year, I lent Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself to Emma, who lent it to Rick, who lent it to Caitlin, who lent it to her mother, at which circuitous point the book wended its way back to me, with a clamor from all parties to borrow the rest of my Bill Bryson books.
Many of Bryson’s books are travelogues (I’m awfully fond of In a Sunburned Country, his book about Australia). I’m a Stranger Here Myself is a bit different: it’s a collection of, I believe, newspaper articles that Bryson wrote after he returned to the United States after twenty years in England.
One of the things I’m a Stranger Here Myself captures is the differences between places: not just big obvious differences, but the little ones that accrue and, cumulatively, create those big differences between places. And between times, as well; Bryson writes not only about the differences between the US and England, but between the US in the 1970s and the US in the 1990s.
These are themes that have been important in my own writing. I wouldn’t swear that I’m a Stranger Here Myself is the first place I read about them, but it’s the first book I read that held this up to the light and said, “Hey, you guys, this is interesting.”
But I’m a Stranger Here Myself had an even more basic impact on me than that. It was the first non-fiction book I read that showed me that nonfiction could actually be good: not only could it tell you interesting information, but it could be fun to read at the same time, as well. And not just fun, but funny! Many of his early books, in particular, are right up there with Terry Pratchett, Mindy Kaling, and Sarah Vowell.
Many of Bryson’s books are travelogues (I’m awfully fond of In a Sunburned Country, his book about Australia). I’m a Stranger Here Myself is a bit different: it’s a collection of, I believe, newspaper articles that Bryson wrote after he returned to the United States after twenty years in England.
One of the things I’m a Stranger Here Myself captures is the differences between places: not just big obvious differences, but the little ones that accrue and, cumulatively, create those big differences between places. And between times, as well; Bryson writes not only about the differences between the US and England, but between the US in the 1970s and the US in the 1990s.
These are themes that have been important in my own writing. I wouldn’t swear that I’m a Stranger Here Myself is the first place I read about them, but it’s the first book I read that held this up to the light and said, “Hey, you guys, this is interesting.”
But I’m a Stranger Here Myself had an even more basic impact on me than that. It was the first non-fiction book I read that showed me that nonfiction could actually be good: not only could it tell you interesting information, but it could be fun to read at the same time, as well. And not just fun, but funny! Many of his early books, in particular, are right up there with Terry Pratchett, Mindy Kaling, and Sarah Vowell.
