Bill Bryson's African Diary

by Bill Bryson | Travel | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0767915062 Global Overview for this book
Registered by saarahoo of Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on 10/23/2014
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6 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by saarahoo from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, October 23, 2014
Bill travels to Kenya on behalf of CARE International.

Journal Entry 2 by saarahoo at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, November 27, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (11/27/2014 UTC) at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland

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On to the next reader via courier.

Journal Entry 3 by wingAnneliswing at Kerava, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, November 28, 2014
This book is on its way to Kirjakko, but I have time to read it before she comes to our door. Thank you for the book, Saarahoo!

Journal Entry 4 by wingAnneliswing at Kerava, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, December 14, 2014
A nice little book is going to continue its travels today.

This is my # 106 in
"KEEP THEM MOVING 2014" Challenge arranged by Booklady331.

Journal Entry 5 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, December 14, 2014
What a slim Bryson, he is usually fatter. Well, this was done as charity, so he uses his words sparingly. This books brother came to the same X-mas meet-up and is currently the 8th most travelled BC-book (about a hundred catches). We have a long long way to go...

Journal Entry 6 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, December 26, 2014
Oooh, I'm laughing out loud when reading the epilogue. My brother's favourite phrases as young was: "Lift Tarzan to the tree!" which was apparently something the film crew needed to do when Weissmüller grew older. I hadn't heard of his later career as Jungle Jim, but the way Bryson described it it must have been hilarious. And Bryson might not be the only American having had no other education about Africa than those films - and of course the jem - Out of Africa.
I'm so glad I'm doing this trip in an armchair - I'll avoid bandits, crazy drivers, brakeless trains and all those diseases, many of which one can be inoculated against or eventually recover from, with the aid of physiotherapy, even to be able to walk again.
Let the adventure begin, I'm ready!

Journal Entry 7 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, December 26, 2014
That was a quick read. It was more entertaining than I thought it would be as books about welfare organizations tend to be more serious. Bryson described many other things than the CARE project and sometimes it felt as if he was there on a vacation, exploring things he thought interesting, like the fossilized pre-humans.
Bryson wasn't interested in Karen Blixen, but visited her old plantation at the foot of the Ngong Hills. I loved Out of Africa THE FILM and had seen a documentary of Ms Blixen's visit to the US as an old lady. She told a story to the camera and she told it SO well I was mesmerized and thought I would love Out of Africa THE BOOK. What a disappointment! I have to raise my hat to the screenwriter who had modified it into this marvellous film we all know and love, as the book itself was more or less a collection of loosely woven stories not particularly well told and not having much to do with each other.
The story of the Kibera slum was depressing and makes me wonder how to address the bigger problem - overpopulation? If you leave these people without help, many of them die. On the other hand, if you help them, more of them survive and multiply and in a generation or two there will be even more poor people there, more than the land is able to support. And I'm afraid that Mother Nature is rather cruel when it comes to overpopulation, whatever the species.
Bryson's flight reminds me of a story told by an ex-vet nurse who became a drug-rep for Novartis. They had sold well and were thanked by the Company in the form of an obligatory trip to Africa. She would not have wanted to go as she was a single parent to a kid and a bunch of dogs and afraid of flying in any sort of airplane. She was told she was expected to take part in this trip which would create bonding and positive group-feeling among the drug-reps all over the Nordic countries. I have to say I do not agree, a bonus trip should not be compulsory and people who are taken somewhere against their will are not bonding in the best possible way, but off they went. She had several shots of whiskey before boarding the plane and the trip to Africa was rather uneventful. It was when they were taken to a safari on a smaller plane when trouble arose. She was afraid during the flight before anything happened, but then came announcements only in some African language, the stewardesses were running back and forth looking serious and would not answer to their questions about what the matter was, which of course did no good. Then the plane made several attempts to land on a tiny runway situated between some mighty hills, but always pulled up just before they seemed to run into a cliff. Around and around they flew, diving and pulling up and finally they turned around and flew back to the airport where they had left from. Nobody told them anything, they weren't served more booze, they were totally neglected. When they arrived to the bigger airport the whole place was cleared from all other activity and there were about 20 firetrucks waiting for them to land. They landed ok, but as soon as the plane stopped the whole crew run out, leaving the passangers sitting in the plane. They probably thought the plane could explode or something. After what seemed ages people came to get the passangers out and to a sideroom where most of them were crying hysterically as they had been sure they would be killed. They got some stiff drinks and were told that a new plane with a new crew would leave shortly and they would be fine - the first plane had a faulty apparatus which said that the landing tyres were in when they in fact were functioning ok - so the crew had thought they might be landing on their belly. In the small airfield they hadn't had enough anything to deal with a crisis like that, so they returned to the bigger airport in case their landing would have gone bad. But by not telling anything to the passangers and then deserting the plane they really scared the shit out of everybody. My friend said that it was a clever thing to do to put them back on a plane with a new crew ASAP, when they could not think straight, as if she had for example had time to sleep over it, there would have been no way she would have taken the trip. A bit like climbing back on a horse right after when you have fallen. Only one person had totally refused to fly and she didn't come to the safari or anywhere else they went - actually she said she had no idea how or if she returned from Africa; by boat, perhaps? The second try went ok and she said the safari was so magical it was worth all the scare - and that is a lot to say by a person who screams when a bus goes over a bridge or into a tunnel (I've done a bus trip to Denmark with her without knowing about her little weaknesses before - and she did a lot of screaming in that bus!!).
Whenever I feel like safari, I'll watch Out of Africa again.


I'll be off to the Bookcrossing Congress in Oxford, but the tradition is to always leave something at the Airport Book Lounge as well. Slim books get to be picked as travel read, I presume.
Enjoy, Dear New Reader, and please make a journal entry so we will know where Bill is travelling.

[Bill and leseratte Klara at the Helsinki Airport book lounge].

Journal Entry 9 by plugghäst at on Thursday, April 9, 2015
I'm on my way to Oxford Bookcrossing Convention and I found this book at Helsinki Airport.

Journal Entry 10 by pinkoeria at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Saturday, April 11, 2015
Picked up from the book buffet at the Oxford Convention. I like how it was left at the airport en route to the Convention only to be picked up by another Convention goer and dropped off at the book buffet. I picked this up for my mother, motherof11, but it looks interesting, so I think I shall read it myself first.

Journal Entry 11 by pinkoeria at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (4/26/2015 UTC) at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom

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Hope you enjoy!

Journal Entry 12 by motherof11 at Dalfsen, Overijssel Netherlands on Monday, April 27, 2015
Thanks for this book, pinkoeria! It's a Bill Bryson I didn't know about, so I'm really looking forward to reading it!

Journal Entry 13 by motherof11 at Dalfsen, Overijssel Netherlands on Thursday, May 28, 2015
Another great Bill Bryson, although of a somewhat different kind.
Thanks for sharing this with me, pinkoeria!

Journal Entry 14 by motherof11 at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Friday, September 18, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (9/18/2015 UTC) at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom

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This lovely little book goes to pinkoeria.
Enjoy!

Journal Entry 15 by pinkoeria at Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Sunday, September 20, 2015
And it's back. I will release it somewhere in England.

Journal Entry 16 by pinkoeria at Intermarché in Vizille, Rhône-Alpes France on Friday, November 13, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (11/13/2015 UTC) at Intermarché in Vizille, Rhône-Alpes France

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Welcome to BookCrossing!

Please let me know where you found the book and what you thought of it. Feel free to join BookCrossing, it's fun, it's free and it's anonymous. No one knows you by anything else than your screenname, unless you want them to. If you decide to join, please note me as your referring member - screenname pinkoeria.

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