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Book Leader Julie A. Sellers Discusses "The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America" by Bill Bryson

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson, 2001
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson, 2001

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson , 2001

Some journeys take us across physical landscapes and others, across internal ones. The Lost Continent details author Bill Bryson’s self-proclaimed “journey of discovery.” Following his father’s death, Bryson returns to the United States from England and travels almost 14,000 miles across the country in search of the elements for the quintessential American town. He revisits sites from family vacations of years ago as well as new locations, writing candidly—and at times, cuttingly—about his impressions, dislikes, boredom, and the unexpected challenges inherent to such a journey. 

 In an effort to rediscover his youth, Bill Bryson returns to his native Des Moines, Iowa, and departs on a journey that will revisit sites in 38 states – sites he’d visited as a child in the 1950s with his family. He reflects on the boredom, kitsch and occasional breath-taking beauty. His trip takes him from the East – Times Square – to the Mississippi River and historic Williamsburg. His memories and his “adult” experiences are sometimes familiar. Bryson is looking for a small town exemplary of the heart and soul of America.

QUOTES:

“A god who listens is love. A god who speaks is law. At their worst, the people who want a god who listens are self-centered...And the ones who want a god who speaks are cruel. They just want laws and justice to crush everything...Love is empty without justice. Justice is cruel without love....God should be both. If a god isn't, that is no God.”

“Suddenly evil isn’t punching people or even hating them. Suddenly it’s all that stuff you’ve left undone. All the kindness you could have given. All the excuses you gave instead.”

As my father always used to tell me, 'You see, son, there's always someone in the world worse off than you. ' And I always used to think, 'So? I mused for a few moments on the question of which was worse, to lead a life so boring that you are easily enchanted, or a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored.

“What you believe about the future will change how you live in the present.”


Julie A. Sellers
Julie A. Sellers

Book Leader Julie A. Sellers Discusses  The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson

Julie A. Sellers was raised in the Flint Hills near Florence, Kansas, and currently resides in Atchison. She is the author of the novel, Ann of Sunflower Lane (Meadowlark, 2022), a Kansas National Education Association Reading Circle Recommended Title and a 2023 Finalist for the High Plains Book Award. Julie’s creative work has appeared in numerous publications including Kansas Time + Place. Julie’s full-time gig is at Benedictine College where she is Professor (Spanish) and Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures. In her free time, she enjoys walks with her husband, PJ, and dog Mozzie.

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Kathleen Holt has served High Plains Public Radio—in one way or another—since its inception in 1979. She coordinates the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.