If you want to read something that will make you laugh out loud, In A Sunburned Country is the book for you. I’m a fan of Bill Bryson’s books and this is one of my favorites. I have read it multiple times, and each time I enjoy it even more.
I’ve never been to Australia and this book is the perfect mixture of history and factual information and stories from his travels through the country. He is able to put a lot of things into perspective, such as how huge and isolated the interior of Australia is and how amazing things happen all the time there. For instance he talks about how a geologist stops to eat a sandwich and looks down at the ground to find a certain type of ant that scientists had been searching for. One of the few people who could probably identify the thing for what it was, stumbled across it, in the whole of Australia. Or the prime minister of the Australia walked into the ocean at one point and just disappeared. Never to be seen again.
He also shares a lot of stories about the many poisonous creatures in Australia (more than anywhere else in the world). In the first chapter Bryson is boogie boarding in the ocean when bluebottle jelly fish (man-of-war) floats by. His hosts warn him not to brush against it because it “might be a bit uncomfortable.” Bryson says, “The sting of a Portuguese man-of-war—even Iowans know this—is agony. It occurred to me that Australians are so surrounded with danger that they have evolved an entirely new vocabulary to deal with it.”
I should stop quoting the book because it just can’t do it justice. If you are interested in entertaining travel stories this is the book for you.
No Comments on "In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson"