I'm A Stranger Here Myself (Jacob Macko)

I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson, Broadway Books, 287 pp.

I found the book in the travel section in the Odyssey Bookshop.

Summary: A Collection of articles that Bill Bryson wrote for a friend in England who published them once a week in his newspaper. His friend asked him to write these just after he left his home of England for 20 years and returned to America. The point of these articles is to explain the large and small aspects of America. The topics of these articles range from “The Cup Holder Revolution” to “Your Tax Form Explained”. From the interesting to the dull, Bill Bryson has the ability to turn any subject into a fun read. For example one of his articles is “On the Hotline”. In this Bryson discusses how there is a 1-800 hotline number on almost every household product. For some products such as TVs and Stereos one may be necessary. But for products such as Dental Floss, what questions would you have that requires calling a telephone help hotline? This book has 70 articles that cover what makes American, America.

The Audience is originally the people of London, England, but now it is for whoever likes to laugh, read, and learn about their culture at the same time.

Bryson can make the most uninteresting subjects fun to read. He has a very humorous but detailed style.

“Junk Food Heaven”
“I decided to clean out the refrigerator the other day. We don’t usually clean out our fridge-we just box it up every four or five years ad send it off to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta with a note to help themselves to anything that looks scientifically promising-but we hadn’t seen one of the cats for a few days and I had a vague recollection of having glimpsed something furry on the bottom shelf, toward the back. (Turned out to be a large piece of gorgonzola.) “

Passages:
“This year between memorial day and Labor day Americans will spend $2 billion on movie tickets, plus half as much on chewy things to stuff their mouths while staring saucer eyes at images of extremely costly mayhem.” (113)
This got me to think about how much Americans go to the movies. I am guilty of going to the movies over 6 times this year and being a statistic.

“It was an article reporting that the control tower and related facilities at our local airport are to be privatized. The airport loses money, so the federal Aviation Administration is trying to cut costs by contracting out landing services to someone who can do it more cheaply.” (97)
Bryson writes about subjects that are commonly discussed in daily conversation. This shocked me to learn how drastic things are getting when even air traffic controllers have to be exported just to save some money.
“Obesity is a serious problem in America (well, serious for fat people anyway). Half of all adult Americans are overweight and more than a third are defined as obese (i.e., big enough to make you think twice before getting in an elevator with them).” (222)
I have always heard that Americans are overweight, but when you think about how half are overweight, it’s mind-blowing. I thought how if the facts stay true, half of our school will be overweight by the time they are adults, which equals out to around 400+.

Relationship:
I interacted with this book very well. It discussed topics in which only I would spend time thinking about and topics which I had never even thought of before. I relate to a lot of the articles. One which sticks out to me is about the fall foliage in New England. I can relate because I do appreciate the foliage and live in New England. But I also can relate because Bryson discusses how people pile into busses on the weekend and tour around looking at the beautiful colors. I personally have always found this funny and can’t imagine why people would do that to themselves.