Rating: 
Summary: I felt left out of the derisive commentary...
Review: As a resident of a nasty little small town, I had a secret desire to read the Bryson had driven through our area and promptly turned around, head held high in disgust at how far from Utopia we are. After all, we don't even have a town square, much less a white picket fence or a quaint church. Alas, he probably had some good information that told him to steer clear. There was a self depricating part of my that wanted to be told that I lived in a culturally devoid cesspool, if for nothing else than to validate my own feelings.Even though I felt left out, I still enjoyed the rambling rants of a man looking for something that he knows he won't find. I am certainly not a literary critic, so I won't make a pretentious attempt to tell you how this book fits in with the rest of American literature. However, I have driven more than my fair share of this country, and have been to a few of the towns that Bryson visited (and many more just like them), and found this book a wholeheartedly amusing look at what makes us American. More importantly, he doesn't embellish the way we are (at least not obviously), and the folks out there who get indignant at reading his work are often to shortsighted to just observe that he is right! If you read this book in series with Notes From a Small Island, you will gain the perspective of Bryson applying the same formula of work to England. The fact that I read these in that order made me think that Bryson came back to America just because he had exhausted the humor potential in England (much as Jerry complains that Tim Watley converted to Judaism purely for the jokes on an episode of Seinfeld). If nothing else, this book will forever kill that desire in you to get off the interstate and go searching for the perfect small town you remember visiting when you were a kid.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lost Reader: Glad I'm not alone here
Review: As I find my self struggling to finish this book, I think Bill Bryson and I have something in common. He should stop traveling, because clearly he does not enjoy it; I should stop reading his negative rants and raves about small town America, because, frankly, it is getting painful. Reading this book has put me in a terribly bad mood -- his negativity is causing me to toss and turn all night, and to meet even the best dreams with sarcastic criticism. I am very disappointed, mostly because I LOVED "A Walk in the Woods." Perhaps the travels chronicled in "A Lost Continent" are too fraught with negative childhood memories, and he can't get over it and enjoy some of the amazing experiences he could have had. I want to write my own book, "The Lost Bill Bradley: The trip that could have been." I'll re-trace his steps, and show the world all the great things he missed. Skip this book, but I would encourage you to read "A Walk in the Woods," which is really rather enjoyable. I only hope that "In a Sunburned Country" (which I also bought based on my feelings about "A Walk in the Woods") is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing look at America
Review: Bryson's memoirs of his driving trip through 38 of the contiguous United States. Amusing look at both rural America, and the commercialization of the nation. Speckled with Bryson's views of American society and values ("When they aren't being incompetent, city officials like to relax with a little corruption."), and interesting facts about the US ("It is impossible to exaggerate the immensity of the Great Lakes....They cover almost 94,500 sq. miles, making them almost precisely the size of the United Kingdom.)". Good for reading once, interesting and amusing, but nothing spectacular.
Rating:
Summary: The Journey Begins
Review: Bryson's travel books, of which I've read several, don't require you to actually travel for enjoyment. I'm fairly certain this is the first of his travel adventures put into novel form, and although not as enjoyable as his later commentary on the U.S. (I'm A Stranger Here Myself) it's quite funny nonetheless. Buy it, read it, and then read his later works. You'll get a kick out of it. For what it's worth, I gave it 4 stars because it's a very funny book -- but if my review does not sound like a typical four star review, that's because his later works deserve 6 stars on the five star scale.
Rating:
Summary: Loser -- Deserves no stars
Review: Save your money, don't buy this book. Too bad I can't give this book a NO-STAR rating. Bryson seems to find little to like in the US. He's surprised by the sand on Cape Cod and amazed by southern accents. I got a few laughs at the start of this book, but soon it turned nasty and cynical. Bryson wants to follow in the footsteps of Dave Barry, but Barry offers humor without the caustic bite I find in Bryson's writing. I got halfway through this book and tossed it in the paper-recycle bin.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I had expected
Review: After reading "A Walk in the Woods" and "In a Sunburned Country", which were absolutely fantastic, I figured this book was guaranteed to be entertaining. Boy, was I mistaken! Obviously a collection of some earlier work, Bill Bryson shares much more of his personal thoughts and less of the local color that made the other two books such wonderful works. After reading half the book, I put it away. I got the impression that Bryson couldn't accept that the America of his childhood had evolved, and that he refused to find anything worth praising about mid-America today. It's really a shame, because his crankiness is often charming in his other works, but here it just makes me want to tell him to go back to England. If smalltown, USA is your thing, go find a book by Charles Kuralt. He knows how to make the middle states seem appealing.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment.
Review: I enjoy travel, mainly for the opportunity it gives me to add to my own travelogue. I was tipped off to Bill Bryson by another Amazon member and sought out this book because it was closest to my own interest. I was assured that it would be witty and revealing. The only thing it reveals is that Bryson has no wit. He searches for America's small towns (What an original idea for a traveler!), only to become disappointed in every single small town he visits. The entire book is one scathing review of small town America after another. His caricatures of small town citizens are insulting. There's nothing quaint about his observations. That Bryson can call himself a traveler may be the only amusing thing about the book. The man shows no joy for the process in any chapter at all. He takes a few stabs at Jimmy Swaggart (Never heard THAT before!) and movie theaters in some attempt to paint himself as Jean Shepherd. He recalls feeling uncomfortable as a long-haired hippie draft dodger visiting Mississippi on the way to a beach vacation in Florida during the Veitnam war. Apparently, the way the people sitting in one diner stared at him forever left him with the impression that the South is full of inbred homicidal maniacs. Looking at his picture on the back cover and trying to imagine that face on a long-haired hippie teenager, I'd be forced to side with the Mississippi freaks. The liner notes also reveal that he spent two decades living in England. From what I can tell, this was not nearly enough time. I emplore the man to return to London where his criticisms of true Americana may be more fashionable. I propose that his time across the pond has left him completely out of touch with life in rural America. He admits to feeling uncomfortable around blacks, snobbish around whites and generally disheartened that things didn't remain a sterile, Ward Cleaver environment in his absence. And throughout his journey, what is the one thing he discovers that makes it all worthwhile? Des Moines - his hometown. It might have been a touching revelation if this guy didn't come across as such a jerk and the Des Moines gimmick didn't come off as such a ....gimmick. This one goes into the garage sale.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely laugh out loud reading
Review: I read this book several years ago...this was my first of many Bill Bryson books in fact. I was on a flight from Ireland to the USA, sitting in the middle of the plane, next to a kindly American Catholic Priest from Rhode Island, and two middle-aged American women. I giggled and laughed out loud so many times that they all kept asking me 'Why...What...' I attempted to read to them from the book. I'm not sure that they found the humour as funny as I did...and I kept giggling as I read. I think this book is well worth a read. I am an American living in Ireland for 10+ years...and it IS healthy to have a laugh about our great, quirky, interesting and mundane all at the same time, country!
Rating: 
Summary: A great travelogue of small town USA.
Review: This book is a collection of stories about Bryson's trip around the country in search for the perfect small town, which calls "Amalgam". It begins with a hilarious take on the Midwest (most notably Iowa, his home State) and stories from the family vacations of his youth. It is a travel book, and not intended as great literature, but it is truly laugh out loud funny. It is, I believe, a fair indictment of certain aspects of out society as reflected in the author's travels. A little caustic (think on the road with David Letterman), but really, really funny.
Rating:
Summary: The Lost Continent
Review: A boring trip written by a fat, coarse author. I'm thankful I've traveled many of the states that make up the USA without Bryson's help. It is true that many people in the United States regret the demise of the Americana of our cities and towns, but his portrayal was oftentimes unfair or simply incorrect. Too many drinks do an eye blear. Under those circumstances it might have been better for us and Mr. Bryson had he just forgotten this entire trip. Thank goodness, he writes more humorously and intellectually and less self-centeredly in his later years.
| 
