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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Funny Ha-Ha

I've been reading Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent recently, and I thought I should write a post about the author. I've read other books by him (A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country, The Mother Tongue, I'm a Stranger Here Myself), and all I can say it that the guy is hilarious. He usually writes about his travels, be it in England, where he lived for at least a decade, in Europe, or in the US, when he came back and had to rediscover his native country. The best book out of the ones I've read is, hands down, A Walk in the Woods, in which Bryson decides to hike the famous Appalachian Trail and then tell us about it. And I think at this point it'd be important to note Mr. Bryson is not exactly young… or exactly thin (check out the picture). You can imagine why the ensuing adventure is riotous.
My recommendation is that you read anything you want by him, but especially A Walk in the Woods. A word of advice, though. I don't know if I'm weird or if this has to do with humor or what, but I wouldn't read two of his books in a row (or in a short period of time), 'cause you won't find the second one anywhere near as funny as the first one. I think this is because his style, the kind of things he talks about, and the way he narrates are always very similar, so the first book is a riot, and then the next one… Well, not so much, because it feels repetitive. And I say this might have to do with humor instead of his particular style because the same happens to me with another wonderful humorous writer: Terry Pratchett. I love his DiscWorld books, but I never read two in a row, even if they belong to different storylines (if you read the series, you know what I'm talking about), because the first one is always great, and then the second one feels like "been there, done that". And I think Pratchett offers some more variety than Bryson when it comes to the way he studies and presents things. So, as I said, maybe reading humorous books in a row is not a good idea. Then again, maybe I'm just weird. Or -a third possibility-, maybe A and B are both true!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really looking forward to read AWITW. And DW, BTW. SJ, SMG, TMNT & BTTF.

(No more acronyms for today)

Mario Alba said...

HAHAHA. (that was laughter, not an acronym)