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| I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $0.78
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (229 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4075
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 076790382X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.92
EAN: 9780767903820
ASIN: 076790382X
Publication Date: June 6, 2000
Release Date: June 6, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not his best November 1, 2007
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Thankfully, this was not the first Bryson book I read; because if it was, there would not have been a second.
All the maturity, wit and history he uses to make other books of his like "In a Sunburned Country," "The Lost Continent" and "A Walk in the Woods" decent reads are unavailable here.
Instead, here, Bryson is dull. Anyone who leaves America for Eurabia by choice has to have a screw loose, and Bryson is guilty as charged.
Like most of his books, the furtive mocking of Americans is evident, and overall, as other reviewers indicated, the jokes are mundane.
I'm reviewing this book negatively, since, if you're going to put together a rambling 300 page book, that's enough pages to get into more detail about the local people as well as commentaries on places other than cliche sites. The typical Bryon stories and side comments are not as "witty" as usual either. Much of the writing seems selfish, especially his usual ordeals. It reminded me of a professor, hippie or Steven Colbert pontificating. That's bad if you're over 16.
Many folks either love or hate Bryson. I'm in the middle. He is a good writer and I have read about seven of his books. He's also preachy, condescending and elitist. Take the bad with the good, I suppose.
 Great Edutainment October 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Back to New England after a two decade long spell in the old one, Bryson penned these articles for a British newspaper supposedly over protestations that he didn't have the time to do so. You would never know it. The result is a thoroughly entertaining book. Well, OK; a pretty entertaining book. But, it's thoroughly entertaining in places, not to mention brimming over with wonderful bits of utterly useless information.
Like any collection of essays some are better than others (of course), but the good ones really shine. Living in the UK allowed Bryson for a cultural comparative model, and upon return to his homeland the good, the bad, the ugly, and (most importantly) the absurd all became abundantly clear. In short, American society was begging to made fun of. Bryson skewers new and unsettling trends along with what he previously took for granted or never gave much thought to. Absolutely, he complains a good deal, but he does it well and goodness knows someone has to. His writing flows in that buoyant, easy manner for which he has become famous. Some jokes fall flat, but most hit their mark. And he could descibe moss for a full two paragraphs and still make it sound interesting. I bought I'M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF as NOTES FROM A BIG COUNTRY which was paired with his book about England entitled NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND. Together, these form a compendium called THE COMPLETE NOTES which held my interest for weeks, and which - admittedly - encouraged me to have a go at writing myself.
Troy Parfitt, author
Not my favorite author in this genre July 22, 2007
I read through about the first third of this offering by Bill Bryson and found I simply could not get into it. Written in the spirit of Dave Barry, Mary Roach and maybe Erma Bombeck, it is intended to draw humor from the little idiosyncrasies of daily American life as seen by an expatriot returned from years in the U.K.
Where I find Dave Barry's turns of phrase highly amusing I tend to find Bill's commentary more rankling. Each article highlights some aspect of American life that I find less than satisfying and the commentary, though trying to be amusing, simply comes off as frustrating.
Funny and thoughtful about the US and Britain. July 3, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book has a charming premise. Bryson is an American writer who lived in Britain for over twenty years, marrying an Englishwoman and raising two children. He moved back to the States with his family, where he wrote a series of essays about America for a British audience.
Bryson is a keen and witty observer of life. How many of us could write an entire essay prompted by the existence of a 24-hour help line on a dental floss dispenser? The essays are uniformly amusing, sometimes side-splitting.
Thought not as consistently funny as Dave Barry, Bryson goes further by adding a healthy dose of thoughtfulness to it all. Throughout the book he ponders what it means to be American, comparing and contrasting it with what it means to British. Every so often the question of Canadianness pops in as well. As countries divided by a common language, they provide a nice playground for Bryson, and he has a good time with them.
The sheer silliness of being American June 3, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Laugh-out-loud hilarious. Bryson's observations about American society and its absurdities rings so true and the author is the perfect vehicle for showcasing these stories. He is just so lovable in his books. His absentmindedness and his sharp wit both serve him extremely well. While poking fun at others, he also pokes fun at himself. His work is just priceless.
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