Title: The Lost Continent
Author: Bill Bryson
Category: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 299
Rating: 4/5
I guess the first thing for me to mention about this book is that I’ve somehow lost it. I took it with me to my other half’s house and I’m pretty sure I remember taking it out of my rucksack, and yet for some reason it’s nowhere to be seen. But oh well, I was only going to sell it on eBay anyway.
Anyway, the book. So this is basically a bunch of travel writing that Bryson created while driving from small town to small town in his native North America. I think he said that he visited 38 states, including his native Iowa. Bryson has a pretty unique view of things because he’s spent a lot of his time in Britain, so he can see America through eyes that are half-British.
True, it does sometimes feel as though he’s complaining a lot, a problem that I’ve found with some of his other books, but mostly it’s entertaining as opposed to a drag and so I suppose I can forgive him. I don’t think he knew how lucky he had it though, being able to actually travel around. I’m reading it during a global pandemic.
He also wrote about how much he hated that the president at the time (Reagan) was a TV personality, as well as how much he hated this new property developer called Trump who was plastering his name all over New York City. I dread to think what the young Bryson made of the last five years, and I’m keen to find out what the old Bryson thinks, so with a bit of luck, he’s working on another book. And I’ll keep on reading him.
