{"id":3865,"date":"2009-07-13T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2009-07-09T16:22:08","modified_gmt":"2009-07-09T22:22:08","slug":"the-armchair-traveler-do-travel-writers-have-a-sense-of-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/the-armchair-traveler-do-travel-writers-have-a-sense-of-humor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Armchair Traveler &#8211;  Do Travel Writers Have a Sense of Humor?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|359620\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3884\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Notes-from-a-Small-Island.jpg?resize=207%2C257&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Notes from a Small Island\" width=\"207\" height=\"257\" \/><\/a>Travel writers range from morose (Paul Theroux) to the absurdist. Summer seems more appropriate for the latter, so for the unfortunate few out there who haven&#8217;t experienced a Bill Bryson book, please do so now.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s absolutely no excuse for those of us who live in Iowa, as Bryson is one of our own. He grew up in Des Moines, traveled in Europe in the &#8217;70&#8217;s as a young man, and has alternated living in England and the U.S. ever since.<\/p>\n<p>My all time favorite is <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|359620\" target=\"_blank\">Notes from a Small Island<\/a><\/strong>,<\/em> in which Bryson affectionately pokes fun at the\u00a0English in all their eccentricity. He clearly admires the British character &#8211; their humility and forbearance, but can\u00a0 endlessly mock their customs and \u00a0language (place names such as Farleigh Wallop and Shellow Bowells and incomprehensible Scots accents). Those of us who&#8217;ve never quite grown up find\u00a0this hilarious.<\/p>\n<p>The blurb on the British version warns, &#8220;Not a book that should be read in public, for fear of emitting loud snorts.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travel writers range from morose (Paul Theroux) to the absurdist. Summer seems more appropriate for the latter, so for the unfortunate few out there who haven&#8217;t experienced a Bill Bryson book, please do so now. There&#8217;s absolutely no excuse for those of us who live in Iowa, as Bryson is<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/the-armchair-traveler-do-travel-writers-have-a-sense-of-humor\/\">[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[538,80,165,328,122],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-reference","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-humor","tag-stories","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-10l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3890,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/3890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}