Bill Bryson

The Iowa State Lecture series brought in Bill Bryson! 

Rick and I have both read his book "A Walk in the Woods", which is also one of my favorite book covers.

Especially since Bryson, in preparation for his hiking endeavor, purchases a few books on particularly gory bear attacks, then spends the vast majority of his nights on the Appalachian Trail completely convinced he's going to be brutally mauled and carried off into the woods by a bear.  

The lecture was held in Stephen's Auditorium (which is HUGE, and impressively filled for a lecturer) We think part of the draw is that Bryson is originally from Des Moines. And proved his "Iowaness" by reciting an amusing list of "You know you're an Iowan if..." Our favorites were: 

"'You add an 'R' in Wash" 

and also "If you go anywhere in the world, and meet another Iowan, you get really excited about it. And they get really excited about it."  

Apparently Rick's parents are the most "Iowan" Iowans we know.  

On the way out Rick described our fellow audience members as "A sea of bald heads" and with the exception of a small group of MFA-creative writing students we may have been the only people there under 65.  

We both really enjoyed the lecture.