50 Books - Books 26 - 32
Jul. 7th, 2003 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sierciaLet's see, it's been a while since I updated this.
Book 26: the lost continent by Bill Bryson. BLECH. I usually love his books (I've read at least three or four others), but this one just left me cold. The premise is simple, author, born in the midwest, has been living in England for a number of years. He's going to return to the land of his birth, and drive around the country, writing about what he sees and encounters. Normally, this is just the sort of writing that Bryson does well. In this one, though his attitude and his snideness combine to make the book insulting and frustrating, even though I AGREE with many of his complaints (about American's tourism habits and the like). I get nothing out of his re-naming towns to be called "bumble-fuck" and his whining about how bored he is for half his trip just annoyed me. I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better, and the second half was better than the first, but that's not saying much.
Book 27: Children of the City: At Work and at Play by David Nasaw. I picked this one up at the Tenement Museum in New York, and I really enjoyed it. It was non-fiction, looking at the lives of kids in cities all over the US in the years 1900-1920. He focuses primarily on their "work lives" - as street vendors, newsboys (and girls) and bootblacks. You'd probably have to be a history person to enjoy it, but if you are, I'd strongly recommend it.
Book 28 - 31: Harry Potter 1-4. Re-reads, in prep for the new one.
Book 32: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling. Definitely enjoyed this one, no one is surprised.
Up next: Either The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin or The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella
Book 26: the lost continent by Bill Bryson. BLECH. I usually love his books (I've read at least three or four others), but this one just left me cold. The premise is simple, author, born in the midwest, has been living in England for a number of years. He's going to return to the land of his birth, and drive around the country, writing about what he sees and encounters. Normally, this is just the sort of writing that Bryson does well. In this one, though his attitude and his snideness combine to make the book insulting and frustrating, even though I AGREE with many of his complaints (about American's tourism habits and the like). I get nothing out of his re-naming towns to be called "bumble-fuck" and his whining about how bored he is for half his trip just annoyed me. I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better, and the second half was better than the first, but that's not saying much.
Book 27: Children of the City: At Work and at Play by David Nasaw. I picked this one up at the Tenement Museum in New York, and I really enjoyed it. It was non-fiction, looking at the lives of kids in cities all over the US in the years 1900-1920. He focuses primarily on their "work lives" - as street vendors, newsboys (and girls) and bootblacks. You'd probably have to be a history person to enjoy it, but if you are, I'd strongly recommend it.
Book 28 - 31: Harry Potter 1-4. Re-reads, in prep for the new one.
Book 32: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling. Definitely enjoyed this one, no one is surprised.
Up next: Either The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin or The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella