Discussion Questions for Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Hi Bookmates,

To make it easier for everyone to find on the blog, I have copied the questions that we have received below.

1. Why do we find Bryson's writing so funny - His descriptions of eg. poor Milton Milton, the toity jar! and the descriptions of the inhibitions towards eating anything slightly unusual at that time?
   
2. Had anyone heard of or used any of the words that Bill described as being delightful Fifties words? E.g. mimeograph, rotisserie, ice box, bobby sox, etc
   
3. How did he get to be so successful, when he missed so much school?
   
4. How do you pronounce Des Moines? I'll bet it's not like the original French?
   
5. How's you memory? Could you remember so much of your childhood?
   
6. Chaise longue - I've always thought it was spelt lounge, and even when reading it in the book saw it is lounge and took a while to realise the point the father was making. Anyone else like that?
   
7. What aspects of Bill's childhood can you relate to?
   
8. Was there more freedom for kids in the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's. than there is now? And if so what has changed?
   
9. Is the past always seen as being better? And if so, why do we look back and think about the 'good old days'.
   
10. What toys do you remember from your childhood?
    
11. Did you learn anything from Bill's informative narration of 1950's America that you didn't know before?
    
12. Did the ending satisfy you?

Thanks to Megan, Lesley, Merrin and Vanessa for sending in their questions, we lok forward to hearing everyone else on Saturday.

Thunderbolts of laughter...

Hello bookmates :-)
How did the February chat go? Was there a newsletter? What were the thoughts/opinion's/ratings of 'Tenth Circle'? Yes this is '20 questions' hahaha. For what it's worth I enjoyed the second half of that book more then the first half, especially when Trixie is in Alaska. I gave it a 3 out of 5.
I went to see 'Mao's Last Dancer' at the movies a couple of weeks back and thought it was great. I'd read the YA edition of the book so the movie fitted in nicely with that. Although it would have been good to have seen more of his early years, it still made me cry in all the right places.
This months book was a joy to read. Bill Bryson is one of the funniest, most sarcastic and dry humoured authors I've ever read. For a few days I brought the book to work as I just couldn't put it down and my workmates were laughing at me, laughing whilst reading !! A couple of questions to ponder:-
- Did you learn anything from Bill's informative narration of 1950's America that you didn't know before?
- Did the ending satisfy you?
Happy reading, see you on the 27th :-)
Megan

Excellent News - check out our Fiction collection on your next visit

Hi bookmates,
we have some great news, today was the beginning of the floating fiction collection. I know I know you are thinking the what?
Being a good sort I won't bore you with the library lingo, but suffice to say the really good news is that you should see a whole heap of different adult fiction books on our shelves when you next visit the library. How it works is if someone has requested a book from another branch and returns it to ours it will stay in our branch unless someone else requests it etc, that is the book stays where the demand is, well that is the theory.
I know I am really looking forward to it as our science fiction collection is looking pretty sad and could do with a few different titles...Looking forward to hearing if you notice a difference in your next several visits and if it is for the better or the worse...
cheers for now, Natalie