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Title: Not His Best, But Still Worth Reading
Review: Although Bryson has got to be the wittiest travel writer around, I wasn't as enchanted with this book as I was with his shorter--and nastier--Neither Here Nor There. In this travelogue, he decided to take a sort of celebratory tour of Britain just prior to moving back to America after 18 years. His goal--largely successful--is to accomplish this all via public transport or foot. Bryson does lots of riffing on various aspects of English culture, often to humorous effect, and never fails to highlight his own mistakes and shortcomings along the way. It's a largely successful book in that he manages to recommend certain destinations and express disappointment at others in a fairly judicious and witty manner. He's also good at highlighting the differences in scale between the U.S. and the UK, not to mention the differing sense of history each culture has.
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