Chapter Summary of "The Great Indoors"

The article "The Great Indoors" by Bill Bryson talks about how people in the United States do not take advantage of nature. He claims that we depend so much on technology that we lose sight of what we have. He gives an example of people driving in their cars with their windows up and the air conditioning on, even though the weather outside might be fine. He also gives the example that there is no foot access to the amusement park; there's only an air conditioned bus ride that costs three dollars and only lasts 45 seconds. He concludes by pointing out that he appreciates the small things that nature gives us, like bird poop.

Chapter 49

The article "Life Mysteries" by Bill Bryson is about how everything is hard to understand even the most simple thing like people who eat i can't believe it's not butter and not believe it's not butter. He also ask some funny questions like why do people say my nose is running, when his slides. He also go on and ask questions about the spleen and what it does for us. Bryson also ask if someone can call you from New York and you are in Nebraska how does that work and why can't they invent the same thing to deliver pizza. He ask questions that everyone at one point in their life have faced like why are plane, trains, and buses on time when you are late and late when you are on time. bill bryson himself said he doesn't understand chemistry, anatomy, physiology, mathematics beyond what is necessary, geophysics, astrophysics, biology and ect.... Bill Bryson is saying as advance as we are we still do not understand the simple things in life.

Summary writing

I chose chapter 15 "Junk-Food Heaven" by Bill Bryson, because it explains how Americans eat massive amounts of fast food, and the fact that it is everywhere. He talks about how the supermarket is filled with all types of junk food. And that he actually had to go with wife to the store because she kept bringing home healthy food. When he went with her he saw every imaginable cereal. From cookie crisp, which he called "chocolate cookies with milk" to cocoa puffs. he talked about how he had grabbed enough cereal to last him for six months. The funny thing is he grabbed everything in sight from the store. He said he missed junk food. He even went to aisle seven which was the aisle for the seriously obese. He grabbed a handful of toaster strudels and microwave pancakes. He was trying to prove a point, that junk food is addictive. He ate all the junk food that he bought, forcibly . But in the end he got tired of it, he said his taste buds have matured, or junk food got worse, but in the end instead opening a box of cookies when he got hungry he opened a piece of Swedish crisp bread and a celery stick. You can't eat something that taste so good, for ever , I think that was Bill Bryson's point.

How to Rent a Car

The article "How to Rent a Car" by Bill Bryson is about how in the United States there are so many types of insurance and most defiantly a lot of them are ridiculous. He talks specifically about how there are so many different types of insurance and that people don't even fully understand them, they just buy them out of connivance and avoiding an argument. Bill Bryson at one point whimpers out that he doesn't understand any of the technical terms and the rules of the different states and coverages for auto insurance. This is showing how lazy Americans truly are and that we don’t like to take the time to find out what we truly need for coverage or in any matter and that as a whole we go the easiest route and allow for the safest quickest way. Americans like many options but they do not like not knowing what the actual options are and doing their true research on them. Bill Bryson has shown in this short story how as Americans we are very multi choiced and that we will do anything to make things faster and easier just because it seems very complicated.

Chapter 10: On the Hotline

In this chapter, Bill Bryson uses his humor to point out Americans' lack of common sense, and that he thinks that a lot of the caution signs on labels of the products in the American market is unnecessary. He continues to explain how sometimes these warning signs on labels can come in handy, and he gives an example of a famous person, whom he read about on a daily newspaper, who tried to iron his shirt while he had it on. He also includes his story of how he had mail and tobacco in his possession on his way to the mail box, and absent-minded dropped the tobacco instead of his mail. But in the end, he comforts the reader (whom might be experiencing the same issue) that it was scientifically proven that some people might be born lacking a gene in their system, which can be the reason why cant focus. and that it's completely normal.

Junk-Food Heaven

In Bill Bryson’s chapter Junk-Food Heaven (chapter 15) he discusses the variety of junk food he can choose from in America. Bill looks through the refrigerator and realizes that he does not have any sweets in his home so he decides to go to the grocery store with his wife. While in the grocery store Bill starts to go junk food crazy by picking up sweets such as chocolate filled devil dogs and whipped marshmallow sandwiches. Bill brings this food back to the house and starts to eat it all but after a while he starts to become sick of all the junk food he has been consuming. He states that the most awful product that he purchased was the breakfast pizza.He said that he tried baking it,zapping it with microwave, and he even tried to served it with marshmallows. At the end of the day he decided that he was tired of the junk food so he threw out the remaining of the breakfast pizza. He goes into the refrigerator and finds himself some Swedish crisp bread and a stick of celery to get something healthy.

The Risk Factor

In this chapter, The Risk Factor, Bill Bryson is comparing living in the United States as a dangerous place than living in The Great Britain. There are two factors of being killed: the untimely and the accidental. The untimely death is the kind of death that happens normally such choking, heart attacks, and many more. The accidental death is the death caused by car accidents, gun shots, etc.
Bryson labeled America as an outstandingly dangerous place. He supports this by saying, “Every year in New Hampshire a dozen or more people are killed crashing their cars into moose.” These deaths are cause by not paying attention on the roads, not wearing seat belts (40% of the people in this country don’t use a seat belt), and constantly busy with accessories such cell phones, food, etc. He also said Americans tend to use guns often and every year, 40,000 Americans die from gun-shot wounds. He also added, the worst thing that can happen is when children get killed. Children were killed because they were sitting in the front seat and airbags kill them. Yet everybody that is living in this country is being alarmed by all the wrong things.

chapter 9 summary

In the article “A VISIT TO THE BARVERSHOP” by Bill Bryson talks about the barbers and how they give haircut. Bryson go to haircutter guy and tells him to give a haircut. The haircut guy asks him what kind haircut he wants. Bryson says that he wants something a bit emphatic. The barber gives me a haircut that makes ones side bald. The haircut guy ask one of his colleagues and tells him to take some of his hair from behind the left ear around the back to the behind the right ear. The colleagues tells him that will look like Barney Rubble. Barney gets sad and just hands him the money. While going to home he walked with his collar up and his head sunk into his shoulders. His wife asked him “ did you did something wrong to make them mad?” and he said “ no just to him to make it like a banker”.

chapter summary by Williamson the Magnificent

For an extra chapter to read in Bill Bryson's book "I'm a stranger here myself" I read chapter 16 "How to have fun at home". This chapter was about Bryson adjusting to some new things he didn't have before. He talks about his new garbage disposal and how he tinkers around with it. He says the most exciting event is when you need to unclog the disposal. Bryson says this sarcastically of course. He also talks about an ashpit that makes cleaning the fireplace a lot easier. Bryson talks about his familiarity with basements. He says that all basements are scary and that's why they are featured in slasher flicks. Bryson goes on by giving us some convenient things to everyday household appliances. Bryson writes this chapter with a sarcastic tone. Bryson goes into detail when talking about basements. He gives some characteristics like the decomposing guinea pig in the vents and the dripping water.

The Best American Holiday

Bill Bryson "The Best American Holiday" is all about Thanksgiving. Bryson talks about how his mom never made good meals but somehow on Thanksgiving, she pulled of some kind of miracle and the food would be great. Then Bryson goes on to say how most Americans believe that Thanksgiving has only been held on the fourth Thursday in November, but in fact it was first held in October. Abraham Lincoln changed it to the fourth Thursday in November. Bryson says in the chapter the bad thing about when Thanksgiving is over, his wife rushes him to get the Christmas decorations up.

Chapter 5 Summary

For an extra chapter that was not assigned to the class out of Bryson's book, I decided to read chapter five, titled Rule Number One: Follow All Rules. In this chapter, Bryson talks about how Americans love rules and how all citizens are expected to follow them. An example he gives from this chapter would be when he seats himself at a local cafe despite the fact that there was a sign that clearly said "Please wait to be seated" in the front of the cafe. Because he decided to disregard this notice, the waitress made him wait an extra couple of minutes for him to get service. Another example Bryson gives from this chapter to support the fact that Americans love rules would be when he is describing his experience at the airport. Without a picture I.D. the check-in clerk would not let him board his flight. Once negotiating with the clerk and his supervisors, he was eventually finally able to bored his flight. This is evidence that if Bryson had just had his photo I.D. with him, he would have been able to board the flight no problem and wouldn't be held up or delayed if he had just followed the rules.

Max Meyer

The chapter “At A loss” it talks about how Bryce how in the real world it’s difficult. Like in paragraph 2 it talk about how he gets lost easily loss of its way back to the hotel or end up in some alley. In the 3^rd paragraph it talks about how his bag zipper was stuck and how he can’t get it open, so after many yanks it finally open but things in that bag has scatter every where and how his zipper on his bag cut a his finger and he compare to a over paying for tobacco. Or how he accidentally knock his drank over and spill on the lady in a seat near him and again. In this chapter it pretty much talks about how little thing makes him feel out of place but the unrelated things such as little thing that he did or what he has done with others.

Your New Computer

I decided to read the article "Your New Computer" written by Bill Bryson. This article was very confusing in the beginning, and absolutely made no sense whatsoever. Bryson doesn't even have a main point in the whole article. I am assuming that by the reading you are to infer about what he is talking about, which is how confusing getting a new computer may be for you depending on your knowledge of technology. In the article he uses many terms that make no sense, and a lot of things that seem like the only person that knows how to work the computer is the actual manufacturer itself. The article is set up like a Owner's Manual on how to set up your new computer. There is a "setting up" section, "saving a file" section, and "troubleshooting" section that all make no sense in the task that you are trying to complete. For example, in the troubleshooting section the problem is there are no keys on the keyboard, and the answer is "turn the keyboard right side up". Bryson does an excellent job in describing his point without even having to say it straight up.