Bill Bryson is a funny guy and this book about his re-treacing of his first trip to Europe made me laugh out loud more than once. He shows his various stops on the continent warts and all - even poking fun at himself. This book is a joy for an arm-chair traveler. ( )

genius? let's not go that far: Bill is a good writer, but genius should be reserved for writers like Thomas Sowell, Marc Steyn, Shelby Steele, Dan Pipes, Victor Davis Hanson, etc. No, I don't expect everyone, sadly, to have read works by these brilliant men, of course.

But anyway, a guy like Bryson, being paid to travel around Eurabia and mock people, offering his insight, should be able to produce good copy. I'd like to see more people write about the decadence, hedonism and secularism that is fueling Eurabia's rapid demise though. I know it won't be any Euros, as they cater to Islam, ignore evil, and spew hatred at the Jews just like in 1939, so hopefully more Americans will.
Off tangent? Nope. Poking fun at Eurabia is different than being brutally honest. Travel books about this barbaric country where six million Jews were exterminated in unappealing.
But yeah, while he's not a genius, you can call him acerbic, or, like the "great" John Stewart," "witty."

I had high expectations of Bill Bryson. I was expecting a witty and intelligent commentary loaded with depth, philosophy, and style. I was disappointed.

Although brief moments stood out in this book, I don't find him to be an intriguing person. He's a homebody from Iowa that seems to only enjoy himself when he is comfortable, when things are simple, and when there's CNN in every hotel room he goes to.

Most frustratingly, his broad generalizations of places and people in Europe based on a couple bad experiences lack any objectivity that an otherwise intelligent person might have. Everything sucked or everything was awesome.

His flashbacks to his time traveling with Katz were the fun parts, because they seemed the most real to me. But his traveling as a mature adult seemed to cater to a lowest common denominator of broad pop culture intelligence, reinforcing xenophobic stereotypes that the average American has of Europeans, most of which were dead wrong, but probably sell a lot of books. ( )

Of course, being Bryson, it was hilarious in parts, especially Amsterdam and the train from Austria. Much more crude than his later stuff. ( )

want to travel