Rating: 
Summary: Laugh out loud funny
Review: When Bill Bryson was in his twenties he went on a trip to Europe. It was for him a liberating experiance despite spending his time with a friend called Katz. This book is about another trip that he goes on through Europe after he has worked in England for some years as a journalist. He starts of in Norway and travels through Europe to Istanbul. Bryson is partially a travel writer, partially a story teller. His books are largely a starting point to have a talk. That can be about his childhood, his German teacher or his belief in the arrogance of French people. This book is actually a laugh out loud type of book. I first read it some years ago, but on re-reading it recently the jokes were just as funny and one actually breaks into laughter reading it. The book is short and can be read quickly but it is worth every penny you pay for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Laughed, laughed, and than laughed some more!
Review: I was born and raised in Europe, but I grew up in America. I have since been back to travel thru Europe and Bill Bryson is right on target when he makes hilarious, witty, harsh, and yet exact comments about the way Europeans are. All the criticism about Neither Here Nor There is coming from people without a sense of humor! Lighten up! If you are a traveler, you'll understand where he's coming from. He talks about the experiences that you think about, and will tell your friends and family after your return home, but his sense of humor and a cocky attitude make such a normal thing, like crossing the street in Paris, an event! This is a book that makes you laugh out-loud! This is a great book for anyone who traveled thru Europe, or would like to go there. If you have never been to Europe, this book will give an idea of what traveling thru Europe really is like!
Rating:
Summary: A giggle fest
Review: I shared this book with my father one rainy afternoon and we could not stop laughing. Every few paragraphs he'd erupt into giggles again and share Byson's latest gem. Ok. Some reviewers have complained about rough language, crude descriptions and talk of, well, farts. Relax! Start thinking like a thirteen year old boy and enjoy the book. Xenophobic? Nah, he's poking fun at what we all know is true and yet don't really want to admit. Keep in mind that Byson makes fun of himself, too. Few writer's have been able to make crossing a steet so enjoyable. (See the section on Paris).
Rating: 
Summary: Sophomoric, but fun
Review: So far this is my favorite of Bryson's travel books, though, in some ways it is also his most eccentric. This memoir represents a return visit to Europe, when a more affluent, middle aged journalist Bryson retraces his earlier trail through Europe as a carefree youth. Besides his characteristic sardonic observations, his descriptions include a number of nostaglic reminiscences and disappointment as his recollections are viewed through rose colored glasses. You have to have tolerance for Bryson's use of the various venues as a means of launching into sophomoric tangents reflecting on having lusted after beautiful young women, or puerile comments on digestion and bathroom habits that provide too much information. His descriptions are the usual mix of admiring and scathing; he clearly was enraptured with Southern Italy and less than impressed with Brussels and much of Belgium. His stereotypes of the various nationalities while often funny are outrageous and savage. This is a good airplane, pool side, stuck somewhere book. It keeps you interested and amused.
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Summary: A very interesting book!
Review: If you enjoy reading travler's tales then this is the book for you. Mr. Bryson takes his readers on a journey to many interesting countries. I highly recommend this book, and would give it more stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Bryson wanders Europe; like talking to a traveler
Review: I first heard of Bill Bryson when someone mentioned him to me in a conversation. So, off I went to the bookstore, looked around, and thought, "The Europe one sounds good." I have been to some of the places Bryson visits (Amsterdam, Paris, Belgium, Germany - but not the part he went to, and Istanbul) so; I wondered how we would compare notes. A comment about the other reviews here; Bryson is accused of xenophobia (Fear or contempt of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples) and other such politically incorrect attitudes. However, I think such designations are a bit of an over reaction. I do agree with one reviewer that there seems to be some gratuitous swearing and this could have been scaled back. I found it interesting when Bryson visits places that are probably not on non-European's Travel hit list; Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Yugoslavia. However, it is interesting to see what he thinks about these places. In this book, one gets a sense of what it is like to go traveling; one must constantly find places to stay and places to eat. The downside to this is that Bryson calls nearly every place he stays at very expensive; one wonders if he is comparing it to the USA... At one point, he recounts a familiar (to me anyway) traveler's dilemma; one travels to experience a different culture, yet one still wants pieces of home for comfort (whether it me English-language television, recognizable food, air conditioning etc) and to acquire these comforts is often prohibitively expensive. Some of my favorite parts were in Yugoslavia (he went there before all the wars, bombing etc wrecked the country), Italy and Scandinavia. A common problem that I have experienced in certain parts of Europe is communication. I have undying admiration for the Dutch; everybody in the Netherlands speaks 3 or 4 languages. I am fluent in English and to lesser degrees in French and German. Yet, I think it better to try to communicate in the local language than always blunder around in English. Sometimes strange things happen; once I was in a small town in Turkey, and in not a few shops, I met people who knew German. I also agree that Bryson is fun to read and reading this reminds me of meeting people on the road and swapping stories. I have just started reading his book about Australia (title: 'In a sunburned country') and I think it is much better researched (there is a bibliography), the writing seems better but perhaps it is somewhat less funny (in the course sense of the word).
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Summary: This is not about Europe, but still funny
Review: Although the book is loosely based on Bryson's old and new travels through Europe, you learn remarkably little about the continent. This is because Mr Bryson himself is too preoccupied with high cost of orange juice in hotels and memories of his teenage travels with a flatulence-happy friend to notice anything of interest. Shallow anti-German and anti-Austrian outbursts do not add value to the book, and neither do annoying complaints about the costs of food in Scandinavia. Firstly, Mr Bryson is hardly a man who finds it difficult to afford a pizza anywhere in the world, secondly, his leftist admiration of extravagant social provision in Denmark somehow does not translate into understanding where all the money comes from. This is a funny book, but you cannot help noticing that there was no need for Mr Bryson to travel to Europe: he could have produced something equally funny from his weekend trip to a supermarket or car dealer.
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Summary: Amusing way to pass the time in a cafe....
Review: I picked this book up kind of randomly. "A Walk in The Woods" always seemed kind of hippy-dippy to me - and while I am quite the liberal chick, I am not so enviro-hippy. When my dad, a conservative guy, told me he loved it, I thought, "huh". Then I picked up Bill Bryson. The gimmick in "Neither Here Nor There" is a return to Europe. As a young man in the '70s, American Bryson spent 4 months backpacking with an unforgettable loudmouthed "friend" named Katz. Now, 20 years later, he returns, following virtually the same route. The result: kind of makes you want to pick up and meander through Europe the way Bryson does. Along the way (through Paris, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria), he sprinkles his essays with historical notations (usually funny, sometimes somber, as with his tribute the amazing people of the Netherlands, the humanitarians of WWII who put life, and the safety of their Jewish population above all else), sometimes hysterically funny observations (about the people, cultures and TV channels in each country) and reflections - comparing Europe now to Europe in 1970. An interesting thing to note is that this book was written in 1990, before much of the conflict in Yugoslavia began on a grand scale. When I arrived at the chapter entitled "Sarajevo", I worried for Bryson's safety and wondered about his choice of a war zone for vacation. Then I checked the copywrite date. Because of the time it was written - so contemporary, yet milleniums away for the people of Yugoslavia - this book offers a unique perspective on Yugoslavia BEFORE the war ... a world that sadly, doesn't exist, is nicely perserved with Bryson's trademark spot on observation, wit and reflection. Though this book is compulsively readable, there are some flaws. Bryson can be negative at times, complaining that "Europe has changed", bemoaning globalization and the "Disney-fying" of the Continent. However, he does not reflect too much on how HE has changed and how his perceptions - that is, his level of comfort, his experiences etc... - have colored how he sees Europe. This kind of reflection would have been interesting ... we expect everything to stay the same, when nothing can because we never do. Overall, this is a great book to read - especially before (or perhaps even more so, after) a trip to Europe. Even better, bring it with you to the banks of the Danube and sip a coke or coffee at a Cafe. You'll be happy to have a friend with you.
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Summary: I laughed through Boston Traffic!!!!
Review: Bryon's humor had me bending over laughing, while trying to drive in Boston traffic. Any book that will make Boston traffic easier is a miracle. I loved being brought to every corner of Europe in this tape. I will get this book in paperbook to re-read the humor and be brought back to Europe again. I can only hope to meet Bryson's at the upcoming Maui Writer's Conference and have him laughing through the pages of my book.
Rating:
Summary: this is a different book about europe
Review: Many of the negative reviews of this book point out that more often than not Bryson goes of on complaint tangents about a slew of things about his travels. I must agree with these critics. It seems obvious that if you don't like the bizzarity of red-light districts don't peruse them or if you don't want to spend an uncomfortable pair of days on a bus bound for the outer reaches of Norway don't board the bus. Simple as that! Yet Bryson does these things and finds fault with them. I believe that may have something to do with America and maybe only Americans can understand this. We are a country who, for many of us, love complaining more than not. We are not stoics. We are commenters and fault-finders. In this manner I can indentify with Bryson as I myself have been a traveller in Europe and frequently felt the same way. Another negative that stopped me from giving all the stars to this finely written book is Bryson's pervasive hate of industrialism or mass commercialism and mass tourism. I'm sorry to say it, but if we take a quick peek at the recent history of Europe we see that it may have never been the storybook/postcard destination that Bryson envisions. Maybe he had such a hard time finding his perfect Europe because its a figment of his imagination. Let's take a peek at this history- for the first half of the last Europe was rocked by the two most devestating wars ever- before that Europe experienced fifty years of instability as revolutions came and were violently supressed in nearly every country-before that were the massive invasions of Napoleon-before that was a country were you were luck to live to your twentieth birthday and not be killed by Europe's world-famous crowd diseases that spawned from Europe's history of pure squallor and lack of anything that we would today recognize as sanitization. Now Bryson complains about the culture sapping American-style commerialism and disneylandish style tourism. If that Europe's biggest problem all Europeans and travellers should thank thier lucky stars when comparing this with Europe's past history. The Europe Bryson wants is elusive in that Europe may never have been the perfect combination of unseemly commercialism and sanitation that it appears he wants. I gave the book four stars because it is one the few books that I read that made me laugh out loud. It is extremelly well written. Bryson's sense of humor even during the complaint sessions is amazing. I suggest anybody who has ever even thought of Europe to read this immediately.
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