Friday, December 18, 2009

12/18

The Book: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

ISBN: 978-0-7679-1937-1

Where: Home

When: 10p-12a

Music:

Company: The Family

Pages: 112-268


The Lead In: Because of Christmas retail crap at the store, reading has been spotty the last week. Finally, I settled down and hammered out Bryson's memoir.


The 411 on the 55: The rest of the bok was a tour of the 50s. The things that were good and bad are listed and laid out for the reader. Sure there was hope and optimism, but there was also racism, nuclear hysteria, and communist bating. Bryson was fair with both sides of the coin. It's difficult to sum up or even define what the reading was about other than saying it was a bunch of facts, stories and tidbits about the era and Bryson's life.


The 20/20: This book was a fun read for someone like me. I am the type of person who yearns for the past and the way things used to be done. Bryson pulls back the curtains on the 50s in Iowa and allows the reader to go back and grow up again. It's beautiful and flawed. At times, the book reads a little cranky, complaining about "progress" and the changes time has brought to his hometown. Overall, though, the book is like a time capsule that breathes, a trip into the past, a beautiful thing.


Line of the Day: "What a wonderful world it was. We won't see its like again, I'm afraid." pg 268


Fact on the Fiction:

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