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The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
The Lost Continent Travels in SmallTown America
Author: Bill Bryson
'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.' — And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place wh...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780060920081
ISBN-10: 0060920084
Publication Date: 9/12/1990
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 283

3.6 stars, based on 283 ratings
Publisher: Perennial
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

ceebab avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 9
He's very cynical, which is fine for a short article but very tiring for a long book. It started to seem like he was purposely driving around looking for things not to like. It was like being on vacation with my dad. Not fun.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 32 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
A quick read...it totally sucked me in. Now I've got a serious case of wanderlust and desperately want to take a long roadtrip. Too bad gas is so much more expensive now than when Bryson took his trip!
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 37 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
This book: part humor, part travelogue, narrates Bryson's road trip across the United States and back again. Bryson travels without strict itinerary, and with frequent stops in small towns across the country. The narrative is written in classic Bryson style, with frequent diversions to explain the origin of many of life's oddities, and with constant sideline commentary. As is usually the case with Bryson, the narrative is illuminating, amusing, and shows Bryson's sense of adventure. It was a pleasure to read. Yes, Bryson is frequently critical, but it's important to note that he's an equal-opportunity offender. Wherever he goes he brings his decidedly sarcastic wit, but he also balances criticism with admiration. This is not a book with a weighty message about humanity or morality, but it is a fun read to pick up and put down at leisure. And the ability to dive in and out is one of the beautiful things about this book; one can enjoy it and put it aside at will, and it takes little time to become reengaged in Bryson's prose.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 173 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I've enjoyed many of Bryson's books and knew that he didn't hold back when critiquing the people, places and things he's encountered, but somehow I was saddened to find page after page of his disappointment in all things American. Yep, he's an American, but somehow his time in Britain his given him license to be snobbish and elitist. Still and yet, the book was entertaining with a number of passages that made me laugh out loud. While the cynicism became grating mid-book, it was still an enjoyable enough read, if only because I had been to many of the places he degrades and have shared his frustration with the commercialization and crassness of tourist culture - but I don't have to write a book to tell everyone that I am "better than that".
BJ avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 61 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Bryson takes a 38-state driving tour of the USA. Somehow he manages to find a lot of towns that are boring and bothersome; but he writes about them with such sincerity that you find yourself laughing about his travels.
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reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on
I love Bill Bryson's books. This one took me a little while because it wasn't as fast paced as his others and I had a lot going on at the time. Definitley enjoyable, however.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 12 more book reviews
Bill Bryson is hysterical and his humor applied to the quirks and dangers of Australia create a wonderful read.
buzzby avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 6062 more book reviews
Reads sort of like Dave Barry. A bit too smarmy for me. He tries self-deprication occasionally, but he still spends far too much time putting others down, not very artfully.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 11 more book reviews
Bill Bryson rules! I laugh out loud when I read his books. I think this one is my favorite on of his.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 11 more book reviews
This book was definitely early Bill Bryson-- funny and very readable but not as engaging as his more recent stuff.
fog avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 139 more book reviews
The author manages to drive the backroads and byways thru 38 states in American and can't find a city, town, or rural area he likes or has positive words about. The only state he praises is his home state of Iowa. He is an American but lives now in England and he is trying to recreate his childhood memories of family vacations while at the same time giving a running dialog of his likes, dislikes and disappointments in the places he visits. Some of the narrative is funny and some just shows his attempt at being the typical snobbish visitor form out of country. It was an ok book to read if you keep in mind that the book was first published in 1990 and you keep things in that perspective.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on
Smart and witty. Kind of drags a little, although that might be done purposely. Funny one-liners tossed in every so often.
reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 3 more book reviews
laugh out loud funny. Bryson has a great eye for the humorous and the absurd. wonderful detailing of small town America and the characters who inhabit these spaces.
classicana avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on
Irreverent and humorous. He spares neither America nor Americans.
Dixie avatar reviewed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America on + 179 more book reviews
Bryson contemplates the state of the United States as he travels across the country in a visitation of family holidays and a quest for the apex of small-town America The Isbn is 0965000755


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