Sadly, I don't think I can read Bill Bryson anymore. I have loved his past work fiercely, gone to hear him speak when he was in town, championed his books to everyone... but as I've grown I find I can't tolerate his sneering sexism any more. I put this book down four separate times after being shocked and dismayed by the shitty way he talked about someone he'd encountered (almost always women); each time, I decided to pick it back up and try again. The final straw was his recollection of a time when he "saved" a bookshop worker from a mentally ill person he happened to know, and preened over how breathing she'd thanked him, and said "who knows what might have happened if she hadn't been nearly spherical."
Gross, gross, gross. I've reached the end of my patience, and, to my great sorrow, the end of my Bryson fandom as well.