Notes from a big country.

Bill Bryson was born in the United States and spent there his childhood. But then, he moved to England where he lived for 20 years. During this time he got married and conceived a family. After these years in England the family moved back to United States.

He realized that his native country has changed a lot since he lived there. So a friend ask him to wrote these changes, for this reason the book is composed of some of the essays that were published weekly in a newspaper column.

In these essays draws comparisons between the two countries. For example, Bill Bryson reveals in the "junk food heaven" that English food is healthier than American’s. He also lets us know that the holidays are not the same in both countries, such as Christmas and typical foods.

 My favorite chapter

I think that my favorite chapter is the one called “Well doctor, I was just trying to lie down…” it is based on the latest Statistical Abstract of the United State and talks about the most usual injuries that the Americans suffer. Some of the examples that Bill Bryson includes on the essay make you open your eyes in a surprising way, literally. In my case were these words: “In the time it takes you to read this article, four Americans will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding”.

It is also amazing that 50,000 Americans are injured each year by desk accessories and in 1992, 400,000 people were injured by furniture. All of this makes me think the same as Bill Bryson asks himself: how do they do it?

But the things that I couldn’t understand, and I read them many times, were for example that more people were injured by sound-recording equipment than by skateboards, trampolines or even razors or razorblades. Can it be possible? But it doesn’t end here, if someone told you that it is more likely that you will be injured by paper money than by scissors, would you believe it? In my opinion you should, at least this is what the study shows.

To conclude, as I see it, this chapter is very funny and made me laugh a lot, but the most important is that I can’t forget all that information and amounts, it really makes me think a lot.