Feb. 18--"The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain"
Doubleday, $28.95
Even if you haven't read any of his books, chances are you recognize the name. Bill Bryson is the best-selling author of the travel classic "A Walk in the Woods," which was made into a feature film last year with no less than Robert Redford playing Bryson. It's safe to say that Bryson is probably the best-known travel writer on the planet, certainly in the United States.
Two decades ago he traveled around Britain, which produced another travel classic, "Notes from a Small Island." Now, he's done it again, touring Britain by bus, train, car and on foot in an effort to see what has -- and hasn't -- changed. But rather than visit the same places, he follows what he calls the Bryson Line, from the seaside town of Bognor Regis in England to Cape Wrath in Scotland's far north. The Bryson Line is meant to be "a kind of beacon, to guide my way," he writes. He allows himself to go off the line, if place and circumstance warrant it. Of course, it doesn't really matter where Bryson goes. As Robert Louis Stevenson says in "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes," the point is not the destination but the journey.
Bryson is a jovial companion and his typically funny self. He ponders such things as cow attacks ("This is a topic that we don't pay as much attention to as perhaps we ought."). He wonders whatever happened to the trains on London's Circle Line ("They used to come along every few minutes, but now ... you wait for ages."). And he has a grand time at the Turks Head in Penzance ("...when did anyone ever drink seven or eight pints of beer and not have a good time?"). He goes to Cambridge and Oxford, Birmingham and Liverpool. He is "dazzled, as all visitors ... are these days" about the latter but not so much about the former. On the other hand, Durham "may be the nicest small city on the planet."
Twenty years ago, he decided that Britain was "wholly strange ... and yet somehow marvelous." Twenty years later, he arrives at a similar, yet different conclusion. As he stands just outside tiny Glenelg, facing the Isle of Skye, mesmerized by a set of two brochs (prehistoric stone towers), he concludes that what he really likes about Britain is that it is "unknowable. ... There is so much to it. ... Britain is infinite."
"Guide to National Parks of the United States"
National Geographic, $28
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service. The United States has 59 national parks, from Alaska to Maine; this eighth edition, which features new content, maps and photographs, covers them all.
The NPS and National Geographic share a long history. As National Geographic Society board chairman John M. Fahey Jr. points out, National Geographic has helped establish, preserve or restore Sequoia, Carlsbad Caverns, Shenandoah, Mesa Verde and Redwood national parks.
The parks are presented in alphabetical order within their geographical regions: East, Midwest, South Central, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Pacific Southwest, Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Each chapter provides an overview. Individual park entries feature portraits of natural wonders and their history. Helpful details about the best time to go, visitor center locations and camping and lodging information are noted, too.
Practical matters are also addressed, including common sense advice, such as don't take chances ("Most casualties are the result of recklessness or failure to heed warnings.") and stay away from wild animals ("Do not feed or touch them -- not even raccoons or chipmunks.").
Overall, an excellent and compact guide, full of useful information and terrific photography.
June Sawyers is a freelance reporter.
