Notes from a Big Country

by Bill Bryson | Travel |
ISBN: 0552997862 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingLilo37feewing of -- Irgendwo in Bayern, Bayern Germany on 10/30/2006
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14 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingLilo37feewing from -- Irgendwo in Bayern, Bayern Germany on Monday, October 30, 2006
"Here's a fact for you. According to the latest "Abstract of the UnitedStates", every year more than 400,00 Americans suffer injuries involving beds,mattresses or pillows...That is more people than live in greater Coventry. That is almost 2,000 bed, mattress orpillow injuries a day. In the time it takes you to read this article, four Americans will somehow manage tobe wounded by their bedding."

THis is a little bit of one of my favourite Essays in this book. Bryson, after having lived in England for 20 years, returns to the USA and finds a lot of things very strange.
The book is absolutely funny, the only thing is: You cannot read it through in one go.

Bookring:
1. Wasserfall
2. JimYounger
3. CaptainCarrot
4. ekaterin4luv
5. erinacea
6. sintra
7. ma-reike
8, maipenrai
9. coco7
11. chtitecam (france)
12. em64 (Finnland)
13. valerief (USA)
14. tigertatze (D)
15. buchleser (D)




Journal Entry 2 by Wasserfall from Wien Bezirk 12 - Meidling, Wien Austria on Thursday, November 9, 2006
heute angekommen. Es muss sich noch etwas gedulden, bis ich mit American Gods fertig bin - aber da ich gerade nicht in Arbeit ersticke ;-) wird es recht flott gehen.

Journal Entry 3 by Wasserfall from Wien Bezirk 12 - Meidling, Wien Austria on Friday, November 17, 2006
Great! But caution: enjoy only in small portions, otherwise you'll get an overdose. I liked particularly "Commercials, commercials, commercials" (if someone has interest in the book mentioned on p.121: I could register it ; -), "Your new computer" (- I feel, what he feels!!) and maaany, maaaaaany more...
Only "Last Night on the Titanic" confused me somewhat! *hä??*

Now the book is on it's way to JimYounger.

Journal Entry 4 by Borschtsch from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Friday, November 24, 2006
Das Buch ist gestern bei mir angekommen. Vielen lieben Dank für's Schicken :) Da es so schöne kurze Kapitel hat, werde ich es als "Zweitbuch" nebenbei lesen.

Update 5.12.06: Ich habe mich köstlich amüsiert. Am besten hat mir "Dumb and Dumber" gefallen, bei einigen Kapiteln blieb mir allerdings das Lachen im Hals stecken. Und Mariah Carey hat mich wirklich fassungslos gemacht. Ich habe die Frau ja schon immer für eine dumme Pute gehalten, aber bisher habe ich es nicht für möglich gehalten, daß irgendjemand sich so äußert: "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."

Journal Entry 5 by wingCaptainCarrotwing from Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Friday, December 8, 2006
Gerade erschien das Buch bei Sturm und Regen mit ein wenig aufgeweichtem Umschlag, aber innen schön trocken in seinem Plastiktütchen. Die Zitate in den JEs sind ja schon toll - ich bin gespannt. Danke für den Ring und fürs Schicken!

Journal Entry 6 by wingCaptainCarrotwing from Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, December 14, 2006
Ich habe mit Freude in dem Buch gestöbert! Besonders nett fand ich die Bürokratie-Erfahrungen und die Erklärung, warum in New Hampshire niemand abschließen muss (ich denke, an den letzten Sätzen ist doch was dran, oder?). Und da ich dann feststellte, dass ich das Buch doch schon mal gelesen habe, reist es gleich weiter zu ekaterin4luv.

Herzlichen Dank!

Journal Entry 7 by ekaterin4luv from Nürnberg, Bayern Germany on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The Notes arrived safely. Thank you.

Journal Entry 8 by ekaterin4luv from Nürnberg, Bayern Germany on Thursday, April 26, 2007
Very funny!
But now a word of caution: please refrain from reading this book in front of others. I made the mistake to read this in a full underground station and suddenly I had to laugh soo loud that everybody stared at me like I was crazy. It was so embarrassing!

Journal Entry 9 by erinacea from Friedrichshain, Berlin Germany on Thursday, November 1, 2007
Ha, this book finally reached its next destination (that being me). There was some sort of PM mishap going on between me and ekaterin4luv (btw, thanks for sending it along) - and I'm really sorry about that. But now it's here and I'm almost afraid to say it might be a while until I get around to it as there are a few other rings on my TBR list and I'm currently already reading an English book and really want to tackle a French one, so I don't know when I'll be starting on this one.

On the bright side it should be possible to read this book in bits and bursts as they come along. Unfortunately that doesn't help as much as it should, as the same could be said about a couple of other books I'm reading at the moment. Still, it probably won't be another six months before this book travels on. Thanks for the ring, Lilo37fee!

Journal Entry 10 by erinacea from Friedrichshain, Berlin Germany on Monday, January 7, 2008
Well, that was enjoyable. I took the liberty to read all but a few of them out loud because reading Bryson out loud is both a challenge and fun. My favourites were probably all those quips on ridiculous statistics or their equally ridiculous results.

A lot of his complaints about American life were not all that new to me - it seems odds and bits have reached even me over the course of 10 years. Also it does get a bit repetitive reading about three years' worth of columns on topics that fascinate Bill Bryson. From time to time I wished for a date of when a particular article appeared in print - it would have been interesting to see the time passing, especially as Bryson refers to earlier columns (also in the book) quite a bit.
Still, finishing the book (and reading the following advertisements) leaves me with the feeling I'll have to tackle "A Short History of Nearly Everything" someday.

I'll probably send it off today to the next on the list, sintra.

Journal Entry 11 by sintra from Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, January 10, 2008
The book arrived today. Thanks a lot!

Journal Entry 12 by sintra from Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Wednesday, January 16, 2008
I really enjoyed this book! I didn't have much time to read so it was just the perfect book for me because I could read it bit by bit.

Some of Bryson's "notes" are a little dated, others never get out of date, I guess. What I quite liked about them (apart from the fact that they were really funny) was the simple notion that in every country you'll find things that are great and things that are bad compared to other countries. So whenever I have to struggle with absurd bureaucracy again I'll think of the poor man who couldn't provide a set of ten fingerprints for the US Immigration Service...

I think my absolute favourite was The Accidental Tourist - at one point I couldn't even read on because I had tears in my eyes and would immediately start laughing again as soon as I tried to read another word. And I guess I'll never get tempted to chew on a pen again. ;-)

Thank you very much for this bookring! The book will be on its way again soon.

Journal Entry 13 by maipenrai from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
the book arrived a few days earlier! :) i cant wait to read it :)

Journal Entry 14 by maipenrai from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Monday, March 24, 2008
i really liked that book (like every book of bill bryson)! it was witty, fun and easy to read. i could read it bit by bit which was good when i only had a little time (like in the bus). bill bryson has a way of its own to describe daily situations which then appear absolutely funny!

Journal Entry 15 by wingcoco7wing from Sprendlingen, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Friday, March 28, 2008
The book arrived here, thanks. I love Bill Bryson's books.

Journal Entry 16 by wingcoco7wing from Sprendlingen, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I tried to savor this book slowly, but no chance. I couldn't get enough and had to read just one colum more and still one more and so on ... It's so funny! I tried to make a list of the texts I liked best but it got too long. Have to read it again someday.
Thanks for sharing this great book!

Journal Entry 17 by chtitecam from Limours, Ile-de-France France on Friday, May 16, 2008
It arrived today (and I've already begun it), thank you!

Journal Entry 18 by chtitecam from Limours, Ile-de-France France on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
really funny!!thanks again! I'm sending it to em64.

Journal Entry 19 by wingem64wing from Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The book arrived yesterday and I started to read it straight away. So far it has been an entertaining and enjoyable read!

Journal Entry 20 by wingem64wing from Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Monday, August 25, 2008
It really was an entertaining read. Bryson sometimes can get a bit irritating with his writing style but in this book he didn't irritate me at all. Maybe it was because it consisted of short stories with changing themes. I have never been to the USA and I'm not too keen to go there but somehow Bryson did make me quite curious. At the same time he confirms my first fears and on the other hand makes me almos curious enough to go there...

Have pm'd valerief for her address, haven't heard back from her yet.

EDIT Aug. 29th:
Got valerief's address and popped into the post office. The book is now on the way to her.

Journal Entry 21 by valerief from Queens, New York USA on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Thanks! Looking forward to my fourth Bill Bryson book after I finish two ahead of it on Mt TBR. Will PM tigertatze for a mailing address.

Journal Entry 22 by valerief at Fellow Bookcrosser, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (10/24/2008 UTC) at Fellow Bookcrosser, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

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This is off to tigertatze

Journal Entry 23 by tigertatze from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Thursday, November 6, 2008
Das Buch war schon hier als ich aus dem Urlaub zurückgekommen bin!

Journal Entry 24 by tigertatze from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Monday, January 19, 2009
Since I already heard the essays already in German, without realising them being the same, this was not as much fun as I thought it would be. But I red my favourite essays and still liked them ;-)

26.1. Travels to buchleser ...

Journal Entry 25 by rem_TCL-173619 on Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The book arrived on Saturday, thank you!

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