Bill Bryson cracks me up !!

Over the past 3-4 years I have done more reading for pleasure than I had probably done in the previous 40 some years combined. When it comes to reading I am a lightweight and enjoy the simple things in life like Harry Potter, Dan Brown's books, etc. It has to be fast paced and quickly gripping or else I lose interest quickly. Anyhow, having read all of Ms. Rowling's and Mr. Brown's output I decided to pick on some other unsuspecting writer - Bill Bryson. I read his book about his final trip around the UK before taking his family back to the USA and then moved onto "The Lost Continent - Travels in Small Town America".

This was back in January - and I am still hovering somewhere around chapter 8 or 9 - not because I don't like it, but because I do like it and I keep re-reading bits over and over because they make me laugh so much. This is a new pleasure for me.

My favourite bit so far is this:

I drove out to the Little White House, about two miles outside town. The parking lot was empty, except for an old bus from which a load of senior citizens were disembarking. The bus was fromthe Calvary Baptist Church in some place like Firecracker, Georgia or Bareassed, Alabama. The old people were noisy and excited, like schoolchildren, and pushed in front of me at the ticket booth, little realizing that I wouldn't hesitate to give an old person a shove, especially a Baptist. But I just smiled benignly and stood back, comforted by the thought that soon they would be dead.

Sheer genius, makes me laugh out loud everytime I read it. It is harsh and dark but we all know in our innermost thoughts that we have probably pondered much worse at some time or another.