Like Mary, Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. He writes two very distinct types of books - intellectual and travel. While the two do blend occasionally, his travel books are particularly hilarious.
My favorite two books are his autobiography - the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - about growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines, IA and In a Sunburnt Country - about his travels in Australia. I shared these books with my wife, and she would call in tears from their humor. I would listen to the books in the car and laugh so hard that I would have to pull the car over for fear of hurting another human being.
Bryson is at his best when he can be personally involved with someone in a bar, on a walk, in a museum - or in describing the various forms of terror that run through a person's mind while traveling. My favorite story is his escape from the wild dogs in Sydney or his friends who blew up their house in the LTTK.
Bryson is a masterful writer who should be read more frequently by, well, everyone.
He does, however, rip on Omaha. But, as Mary said, that seems like the pot calling the kettle black.
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