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By
Bill Bryson and
Bill Bryson (NRT)
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Jump down to see edition details for: CD/Spoken Word
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher
Random House
Publication date
May 1, 1999
Binding
CD/Spoken Word
Edition
Abridged
Book category
Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13
9780553456509
ISBN-10
0553456504
Dimensions
1 by 5.25 by 5.75 in.
Weight
0.50 lbs.
Availability§
Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price
$29.95
Other format details
audio
§As reported by publisher
Amazon.com says people who bought this book also bought:
Bill Bryson's African Diary | At Home | The Road to Little Dribbling | A Walk in the Woods | The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid | The Lost Continent | In a Sunburned Country | One Summer
Bill Bryson's African Diary | At Home | The Road to Little Dribbling | A Walk in the Woods | The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid | The Lost Continent | In a Sunburned Country | One Summer
Summaries and Reviews
Summary
The author describes his return to America after two decades of living abroad and his disconcerting reunion with his homeland as he discusses motels, tax-return instructions, and hardware stores.
Amazon.com description: Product Description: The master humorist and bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods now guides us on an affectionate, hysterically funny tour of America's most outrageous absurdities.
After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly three million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new-and-improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.
Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. From motels ("one of those things--airline food is another--that I get excited about and should know better") to careless barbers ("in the mirror I am confronted with an image that brings to mind a lemon meringue pie with ears"), I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles the quirkiest aspects of life in America, right down to our hardware-store lingo, tax-return instructions, and vulnerability to home injury ("statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or underpants than by a stranger").
Along the way Bill Bryson also reveals his rules for life (#1: It is not permitted to be both slow and stupid. You must choose one or the other); delivers the commencement address to a local high school ("I've learned that if you touch a surface to see if it's hot, it will be"); and manages to make friends with a skunk. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.
After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly three million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new-and-improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.
Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. From motels ("one of those things--airline food is another--that I get excited about and should know better") to careless barbers ("in the mirror I am confronted with an image that brings to mind a lemon meringue pie with ears"), I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles the quirkiest aspects of life in America, right down to our hardware-store lingo, tax-return instructions, and vulnerability to home injury ("statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or underpants than by a stranger").
Along the way Bill Bryson also reveals his rules for life (#1: It is not permitted to be both slow and stupid. You must choose one or the other); delivers the commencement address to a local high school ("I've learned that if you touch a surface to see if it's hot, it will be"); and manages to make friends with a skunk. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.
Editions
CD/Spoken Word
The price comparison is for this edition
Abridged edition from Random House (May 1, 1999)
9780553456509 | details & prices | 5.25 × 5.75 × 1.00 in. | 0.50 lbs | List price $29.95
About: The author describes his return to America after two decades of living abroad and his disconcerting reunion with his homeland as he discusses motels, tax-return instructions, and hardware stores.
About: The author describes his return to America after two decades of living abroad and his disconcerting reunion with his homeland as he discusses motels, tax-return instructions, and hardware stores.
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