Travel to Iowa

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

Format: Audio CD
Author: Bill Bryson
ReleaseDate: 17 October, 2006
Publisher: Random House Audio
Rating:

Great Fun


I really came to enjoy Bryson's observations about how "the good old days" were also fraught with some significant downsides, which we've gratefully grown beyond. This was a wonderful book, which also deviates here and there into politics and general history.

One carp: Bryson himself reads the audio edition, and he's not the most gifted reader I've ever heard. He's so laconic that the material really has to carry itself.

H'mmm - maybe that's not such a bad thing after all. . . anyway, you'll enjoy this book in any form.

PS - if you like this, you'll love the writings of Jean Shepard, too.

Let's Trade Childhoods

Here his travels are temporal, instead of spacial as he takes us back to his childhood - and what a childhood it was. Bill Bryson is by far the funniest, most insightful, travel writer today. His writing is so personal and open that you can't help but feel that this book was written specifically for you.


It is both a very middle class North American tale, set in the fifties and a Calvin archetype (as in Calvin and Hobbes) visioneering a rich and adventurous landscape, that none of the adults could see.

May The Thunderbolt Kid ride again.

David Cale
.

Bathroom Humor
Some of the eating habits were outright gross. I am a big fan of Bill Bryson but was a little disappointed with the Thunderbolt Kid. Many of the stunts and shenanigans were not what I'd expect out of Bryson. Much of his wit was missing in this book. I had few if any laugh out loud moments through this book.

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	The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
	Bill Bryson's African Diary