not sure if I have read this or not, even so, will really enjoy it again, as I will now have been to some of those places!

I realised as I was reading this that I have read it before. This didn't really matter and in most cases I didn't even remember reading it. I have however visited some of the places since reading it the first time and interestingly, I agree with Bill in some places. I also didn't warm to Florence, it was nice for a day and I would definately go again, however I liked Piza better and as it is about an hour away on the train and accommodation is cheaper, I would go there instead. Lots of memorable quotes "I love the way the Italians park. You turn any street corner in Rome and it looks as if you've just missed a parking competition for blind people. Cars are pointed in every direction, half on the pavement and half off, facing in, facing sideways, blocking garages and side streets and phone boxes, fitted into spaces so tight that the only possible way out would be through the sun roof"

This book is also a bit dated and I think things have improved somewhat in some countries and technology has made such things as booking accommodation and travel much easier.

sent as part of an NSS parcel. I hope you enjoy this one and Bill Brysons dry sense of humour!

Thank you jax987654321! This was the first Bill Bryson book I read, a very long time ago now. I'd absolutely loved it at the time and kept the book a number of years. Since then I've enjoyed various other books by him, except his more recent Road to Little Dribbling which seemed grumpy and small-minded in places. I was unsure then whether this was me changing taste, or him changing style. Rereading Neither Here Nor There might help me to decide.

The other question is, is reading this going to make me cry with frustration for all the travelling opportunities I've missed over the past two years?!?

I've fond memories of reading Neither Here Nor There in the mid-late 2000s and loved it then. I wanted to do so again, and the first chapter on Hammerfest seemed to suggest that I would. It was clever, funny and enlightening.

But as I read further into the book, there were increasing moments which irritated, or occasionally shocked me with their Daily Mail-esque rants and/or jokes based on racist stereotypes. I guess back in the 1990s/2000s this was more acceptable, but it grates now. For example, here's a quote from Bryson's time in Geneva:

"First, I had to stand in a long queue , full of veiled women and men in nightshirts, all involved in complicated transfers of funds from one Arab sandpit to another, requiring the production of parchment documents, the careful counting of huge stacks of brightly coloured money and occasional breaks to pray to Allah and slaughter a goat."

I guess I'm too 'woke' to feel comfortable with that kind of humour any more....

To be fair there were other sections, particularly in Sofia, where Bryson shows a much more self-aware and more considerate perspective. Overall though, I couldn't sink into Neither Here Nor There in the way I once had. There were too many times (especially when Bryson repeatedly pontificates on how everything would be nicer if all of Europe still looked like it did in circa 1750) where I wanted to cry out loud, "Oh just get over yourself!"

If you are new to bookcrossing - welcome and congratulations for finding a book! Please leave a journal entry to let me and any other readers know where it has gone and what you thought of it.