Rating: 
Summary: Funny, funny, funny, funny read!
Review: The previous reviewers who gave this book 1 or 2 stars are, I noticed, either really full of themselves or they're from the midwest....the very place Bryson *really* socks it to. I spent far too many years in the midwest and I've gotta say Bryson is RIGHT ON THE MONEY! Hilariously cynical in all the right ways. Yeah, if you're a "serious armchair traveller," you might wanna pass on this one. However, if you appreciate a twisted, off color sense of humor....GO FOR IT!!! You will NOT be disappointed!! And did I mention it's FUNNY?!
Rating:
Summary: THE funniest book I've ever read and re-read!
Review: This book will make you laugh out loud
Rating:
Summary: Fall Down, soda-up-your-nose funny
Review: Having just completed a 30,000 mile road trip to photograph citizens in 53 towns in the USA with the funniest names you've ever heard, I can tell you that Bryson's observations are excruciatingly on target and snortingly funny. He sees beneath the contrived commercial and pointless idiocies that coat America's boonies and larger towns. It's satire with an appropriate but minimal garnish of respect and every word is true. He sees us as we are and makes us laugh out loud. I want him in my car for my next foray into the boonies. If you don't think he's funny, then you must be in his line of fire.
Rating: 
Summary: Bryson tries too hard bashing the USA for English readers.
Review: Funny, but Mr. Bryson tries too hard making the book funny for his English audience. Most of his preconceptions are outdated. Since the book is 10 years old, some of that is understandable. It would have been better had he compared his actual experience against the preconception rather than telling of the foreboding preconception and then fitting the experience to it. If you're from the UK and love this book -- great, but it's not an actual depection of reality in the USA.
Rating: 
Summary: Toilet Paper Would Be More Useful
Review: If you're looking for a diatribe of total exaggeration and falsity, this is your book. Did I say book? Maybe doorstop would be a better description. Having grown up, and traveled extensively through the areas that the author describes with such deft fictitousness, I question whether he ever actually has been to the places he relates. I grew up in the Mid-West and moved out to the West Coast (Portland/San Diego) in my late teens, but the lifestyles the author describes of Iowa in particular are so bent out of proportion, and contrived, that this is one book that should definitely be left in the outhouse.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes painful, always funny.
Review: A British friend gave me this book to read. He found it hilarious, as did I. When it comes to the foibles and warts found in our society, Bryson is right on the money.
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Summary: The sort of book for people who like this sort of book
Review: Bill Bryson is an unpleasant little curmudgeon, and it shows all over this book. When he comes home from England and decides to drive around his native country, he is shocked - shocked! - to find that: A) The distances are long and a lot of them are boring. B) Poor people don't live in quaint little cottages, but in distasteful trailers, and their dress sense isn't always the greatest. C) People who cater to tourists like to make money, and some of their advertising claims are inflated. Bryson's livestock mentality toward women is a dead giveaway of the Midwestern upbringing he tries so hard to put behind him. Oh, and what is up with his love of pricey boutiques? He always approves when he finds a town that has converted itself into an upscale tourist mall (Warm Springs, Ga. for one). Evidently tourist traps are fine as long as they're tasteful and expensive. This is the kind of predictable America-bashing that Brits and Europeans love (which is fine - nobody's asking them to come here). It gets boring pretty fast, especially since some of his rants are practically verbatim copies of one another: he drives into a town with an ugly strip, eats some bad food, goes back to a saggy motel bed and watches some cheesy TV. Every so often he adds a run-in with a rude waitress or a big mean RV for levity. Whee! It's hard to understand why Bryson went on this trip if he knew from the start what he would find. In fact, you have to wonder whether he really bothered to do all that driving. He could just as easily have written all this from some cozy armchair without ever having to leave England. Bill, take up a hobby or something. I hear tae-bo is great for the endorphins.
Rating:
Summary: Shallow, unremarkable travelogue
Review: Shallow, unremarkable travelogue that is short on original insight. The humor grows stale after the first few chapters thanks to an over-reliance on a single spiteful undercurrent.
Rating: 
Summary: Bryson is funny while reassuring Brits of their worth...
Review: This is a very funny book, which certainly made me laugh. The fact that some readers have disliked Bryson's very mild criticism of his own country just goes to prove how well aimed Bryson't wit is. I have but one negative comment, which applies to all of Bill Bryson's books: he knows that his main market is Great Britain and goes out of his way to reassure his British readers that, oh, they are so lucky to be British! But you can't blame the man for protecting his source of income...
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest books I've ever read!
Review: It's embarassing to read this book in public; it was laugh-out-loud hilarious...I got lots of bizarre stares from fellow commuters! Having grown up in the Midwest close to Iowa and traveled extensively through small town America, I can attest to the truth in Mr. Bryson's comments...he is dead-on perfect with his observations and descriptions. And while he does point out the obvious targets, he also admits that there is some kind of beauty and simplicity to small town life that he misses, that he envies, and that he holds dear. This is not a pot-shot book. This is one of the funniest and truthful books out there.
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