Tag: europe

Neither Here Nor There

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Bryson, Bill. Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, 2009.

Reason read: Bryson celebrates a birthday in December. Read in his honor.

Unlike other travelogues that are bogged down by dry and didactic narratives and mind-numbing historical perspectives, Bryson’s Neither Here Nor There none of those things. Instead it is conversational and as funny as a drunk standup comedienne. Bryson is more concerned with where to find a beer than he is about regurgitating stale facts and figures about an ancient city. It is if Bryson has stuffed you into his backpack and all you can do is eavesdrop on his hilarious monologue as he traipses across the Continent. This isn’t his first rodeo. Bryson first went to Europe in 1972. He went again in 1992. Both times, he was capable of traveling around Europe without planned transportation or hotel reservations or even a clear itinerary. As an aside, I asked myself what it must have been like to backpack across Europe in the 1970s. Did Bryson and his longtime friend, Stephen Katz, find what they were looking for? Were they even looking for something in the first place? But, I digress.
Bryson went back, twenty years later, this time on his own, retracing his journey across Europe. He makes a point to stop in every major city across the Continent; he’s a rock star on the Grand Tour of humor.
My only complaint? No photographs!

As an aside, would Bryson still sell his mother to 45 in exchange for the Italian view?

Author fact: I have to wonder if Bryson still lives in New Hampshire?

Book trivia: Could they make a movie of this epic vacation? As an aside, there are other movies with the same name. Definitely not the same topic, though.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explaining Europe: the Grand Tour” (p 82).

March to a Different Drummer

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I will make a return to racing in two weeks. My last public run was in July. I’m not ready. Simply not. March is also two Natalie Merchant concerts. A return to my favorite voice. Here are the books:

Fiction:

  • Monkey’s Raincoat by Robert Crais – in honor of March being a rainy month. Dumb, I know.
  • Topper by Thorne Smith – in honor of Smith’s birth month being in March.
  • Giant by Edna Ferber – in honor of Texas becoming a state in March.

Nonfiction

  • Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam – in honor of March being the month the U.S. finally pulled out of Vietnam.
  • Cherry: a Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard by Sara Wheeler in honor of March being the month Apsley ended his depot journey.

Series Continuation:

  • Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett – to finally finish the series started in August in honor of Dunnett’s birth month.
  • Blackout by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza – to finish the series started in February in honor of the Carnival festival in Brazil.
  • Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov – to continue the series started in honor of Asimov’s birth month.
  • The Moor by Laurie R. King – to continue the series started in January in honor of Mystery Month.

For fun:

  • Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver – still reading
  • Sharp by Michelle Dean – still reading
  • Calypso by David Sedaris – needed for the Portland Public Library reading challenge.
  • Living with the Little Devil Man by Lina Lisetta – written by a faculty member.
  • Hidden Southwest edited by Ray Riegert – for my May trip.
  • 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz – for my May trip…and the 2020 Italy trip.