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Summary: This is a great journey!
Review: Bill Bryson is an excellent tour guide in this unique look at the land "down under". I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book - too bad it was not longer! If we could all learn about other countries in this way, history and geography would be a breeze! And we would be much better for it, too. Thanks for a great read!
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Summary: Bill Bryson Down Under
Review: The book I am reviewing has the above title. On page 12 he gives a description of snoring which seems to be a clear example of a condition known as "sleep apnoea". I wonder if he knows this. In any event it can be recommended to medical students,and everyone else as a great book. I laughed out loud repeatedly.
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Summary: SHEER FUN!
Review: Exploring foreign lands through the books of Bill Bryson is such fun! Australia comes alive in this captivating book full of fascinating facts, entertaining information and hilarious anecdotes by an author whose self-deprecating sense of humor makes him unique among travel writers. I have read all his books at least twice, including this one, and can hardly wait for his next one! Definitely 5 big stars for this one!
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Summary: Three Cheers for the World's Most Lethal Country!
Review: I admit it. I am one of the many who ignores Australia. Sure, they had the Olympics there, but I have never entertained the thought of visiting. Until I read this book, that is.In his inimatable enthusiasm and taste for the absurd, Bill Bryson has painted a vibrant, scratch-and-sniff descriptive portrait of the world's most neglected continent. From the death stories of the rich and famous (in what other country could a Prime Minister take one step into a gorgeous sea and vanish entirely?) to the brush-of-death stories of the narrator (wild dogs, boogie boards, and so on), telling of Australia's amazing natural treasures, interesting inhabitants, and enough cold beer to drown in, Bryson has convinced me that a trip around the globe would be well worth it. An absolutely riveting and hilarious read, even if you don't think you like Australians, travel, or even books. BUY IT NOW!
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Summary: Wish I was there...
Review: All I can say is that if you travel, or, better yet, dream of traveling, as you are reading Bryson's book of his travels in Australia, you will surely wish you were there right now. Bryson's usual breezy style, plus his optimistic outlook on what he is seeing and what is yet to come, make this book a pleasure to read. His writing radiates so much fun, it is a difficult book to put down; the reader can't wait to go on and share in the fun around the next corner (and on the next few pages). Escape into pleasant dreams by reading this book.
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Summary: Terrific Summer (or any season ) Read!
Review: At ...recommendation, I ordered this book. Not one for "travel books" (I'd rather be traveling then read about traveling) I am now a Bryson fan. He puts you right there, down under, and is a wonderful traveling companion. Mr. Bryson finds the absurd and you go along with his astonishment of finding this absurdity. While this journal is chock full of interesting and factual information about Australia you will be surprised to find yourself laughing out loud at some of his observations especially about the inhabitants of this great continent. I look forward to more, more, more from Mr. Bryson!
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Summary: A Confusing Trip In A Vast Kingdom
Review: Bill Bryson's unqualified and unquantified enthusiasm for Australia is never in doubt. Therefore, it is puzzling why it seems he slotted his visit between more pressing duties like book tours, taking a hike in the Middle East, and attending to business in London. I felt curiously stranded when I was left at long-gone Surfer's Paradise in Queensland while Bill winged off to Africa cheerily telling me he'd be back in a while. When we next met up, we were in an entirely different part of Australia. These departures and arrivals make reading the book a disjointed experience. You never know exactly where you are. The writing is vivid, clever and frequently humorous-what we expect from Bill Bryson. He describes the capitol Canberra: "-reminded me less of a city-much less-then say, a preserved battlefield. There was that sense of spaciousness and respectful greenness that you would expect to find at Gettysburg or Waterloo." This was delightful and gave an instant picture. His keenness for the small oddball wonders and places is always diverting. Bill travels happiest when alone. He meets with a few old friends and travels awhile with a buddy who mostly annoys him, but seems truly content when solo. As a reader, I felt marooned from the day-to-day encounters one has with real live people when traveling. I would have liked more interaction with the people who are justly called the "friendliest on earth." Instead, there is far more natural history and botany than I bargained for. I was informed, but not particularly entertained. I think Australia is too enormous and complex to cover in such a haphazard manner. He needed to spend less time on his homework and more time being there, feeling it, and absorbing its uniqueness.
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Summary: Ignore the kookaburras who didn't like this
Review: This book is pure fun. When i read the reviews of those few who gave it 1 star, I couldn't believe that they actually read the book. It's not a heavy book, not a travel book, but highly entertaining and highly recommended for reading at the beach or similar place. Makes me want to go down under someday too. Don't read it if you don't have a sense of humor. Everyone else will smile when they read it.
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Summary: Traveling red-faced
Review: Bill Bryson explains in the first two paragraphs that the title of his latest work - "In a Sunburned Country" - should have been "In a Sunburnt Country," a line of familiar and well-loved poetry borrowed from Australia's own Dorothea Mackellar. It should have been, but isn't. "I know it should," he writes, "but it isn't." And there you have it. Released to coincide with the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the book was intended as travel literature. Again, it isn't. It is, more than anything else, a vague and vaguely dispiriting record of Mr. Bryson's hop-scotch across the southernmost continent, which, he notes at every turn in the road, is very big, very hot and very far away. There IS much to learn - to be fair - about Australian pubs, and Bryson's energetic eating and drinking habits. Tourist sites are well documented, degrees of tackiness carefully noted. Museums of every size and purpose proliferate like Australian rabbits. Motels emerge as major metaphors. Not nearly as common are Australians - real people with real names and stories to tell. That is particularly true (and egregious) if they are black. Aboriginal Australians are most commonly described as being out of sight. A result, perhaps, of being out of Mr. Bryson's mind. Mr. Bryson has taken earlier shortcuts with readers. He continues to contend, even in the flyleaf of "Sunburned Country", that he walked "most of" the Appalachian trail, an adventure he captured in "A Walk in the Woods". The truth is that, by his own reckoning, he walked 870 miles. The trail stretches out over 2200 miles. That works out to a little less than 40 percent. Which is, of course, no small accomplishment. But most of it? No. It isn't. There are also the matters of tortured syntax (alternating American and British idiom), an unfortunate affinity for the vulgar anecdote and Mr. Bryson's general unpleasantness in the company of hotel and pub employees. None of that adds much. Altogether an unfortunate outing for Mr. Bryson.
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Summary: Abso-bl***y-lutely marvellous!
Review: I lived in Oz for 20 years and I can vouch for Bryson's getting it dead right! The guy's talent for acute observation coupled with wry humour is nothing short of astounding. It's all there . the big country, the variety of nasty beasties ready to sting and bite you, the friendly inhabitants with their outgoing confidence on the one hand and their insecurity with respect to the big world outside on the other. This book brought it all back brilliantly. However, be careful - if you read on the train home, you'll get very odd looks as you constantly break into sniggers. It's that sort of book. Well done, Bill Bryson.
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