Neither Here Nor There - 20110119

The idiom means "unimportant". And could also be the title of a hilarious travel book, written by Bill Bryson.

While searching for something to kill time from the bookshelf, I noted this stuff. A paperback one, which the paper is stained by age, it could hardly be described as good looking. And although I have read another book from Bryson, on "nearly everything", I could never recall an ounce of what the hell inside. Since it seemed that most of the books have been covered, and rather reluctantly, I picked it out.

So, life sometimes is really like a box of chocolates, that you never know what you get next. Neither Here Nor There is a savory one, albeit its ugly facade.

The book is a travel note around Europe, in an American perspective. Much of the content must be fictitious, whilst the attitude of different peoples should be quite true. According to Bryson, Europeans were pompous and the supposed-to-be-everlasting-naive Americans were scorned. The most interesting thing is, Bryson poked fun at the "discrimination". From Norway to Yugoslavia, most of the countries may not be as enchanting as we may have imagined. However, laughter were coming by waves.

Somehow, Yukio Mishima's quote, "when I am telling a tragedy, you treat it as joke", is painfully true.