In a Sunburned Country

Rating:
Summary: Lovely, Wonderful, and finally UNABRIDGED!
Review: I am a longtime Bryson fan, ever since I bought 'The Lost Continent' on cassette during a long-ago trip to England! Imagine walking into a London bookstore and coming across a travelogue of the US written by an ex-pat American. I fell in love with Mr Bryson's sense of humor and his unique ability to make all that he saw so clearly visible to my own mind's eye.

I read the books but I've always also bought the audiobook versions because these are books that just HAVE to be heard. Mr Bryson's pleasant voice has lightened many a long mile for me while I've driven long distances over the same US roads he wrote about. It's always been a disappointment to me that the audiobooks were abridged.

Well, not this one. Finally we can hear Mr Bryson read every word of this wonderful description of the sights and stories of Australia. I smiled, I frowned, sometimes I laughed out loud...and once I even cried. I love this book. Thank you, thank you so much Mr Bryson for finally giving us an unabridged reading of a wondrous book.

And now, having listened to it, I'm reading it and enjoying it all over again.

Rating:
Summary: From an Aussie..
Review: I met Bil Bryson today at a book signing in my home town of Perth, Western Australia. I am happy to say he is exactly as I imagined him to be, jolly, big and self effacing. I have just finished his book about us here in Australia, and although sometimes the truth hurts, he puts it in such a kind way that you can't help but laugh at youselves. He captures the Australian people's way of life perfectly, describes the land exactly the way it is, and has really done his homework regarding local politics etc. What with him and Dame Edna, people from far and wide will be flocking to the land down under. That's if Mr Bryson hasn't frightened them all off with his descriptions of all our fearsome creatures, snakes and creepy-crawlies. A funny, funny read that will make you laugh out loud.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a disappointment
Review: Not that it is a bad travel book, as travel books go, but not a worthy Bryson. I have read all his books and usually keep them for when I am alone, or at least at home. That is because laughing out loud so often in public can get you stared at. This book, unfortunately, can be read anywhere. It is informative but doesn't have that humor I have grown to expect and wait for in Bryson's fabulous books.

Rating:
Summary: Could've been better, considering how great Oz is
Review: This book came out just as I was coming back from my semester abroad in Australia, and I snatched it up. It's pretty funny (though not as good as Bryson's other books). The problem is that he gets fixated on really, really random things that most people wouldn't be interested in, such as one particular tree or such. There are so many beautiful, intresting parts of Australia that he hardly touches on (i.e. the majority of tropical Queensland, the great and unique surfing culture), and they probably would've made for more interesting reading. There is a lot of absurdity in the country besides the hot weather and venomous creatures that he brings up every 2 pages, and they would've led more variety to the book-- by the time he got to describing the hot weather and venomous creatures in WA near the end of the book, he almost lost me. If I'd never been to Australia, this book definitely would not interest me in it-- it would sound infinitely boring, which it is not! All in all, an enjoyable book for someone who knows the places.

Rating:
Summary: Another enjoyable Bryson romp!
Review: Well, what a joy this book is! This, in my view, is Bryson's most skillful blend of anecdote, humor and history to date. He has, in this book, contained what I feel was a weakness for him - an earlier tendency to lurch into adolescent bawdiness - and has penned a consistently interesting (in fact, fascinating) running monologue of his exploits down under. Bryson, I believe, is deceptively gifted and skilled. That is to say when you finish any of his highly readable, enormously likable books there is a tendency to say "Gosh, I bet I could write a book like that," when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Bryson's perceptiveness, wry humor and disheveled cleverness bring alive experiences that if recounted by virtually any other author would be rendered as lifeless, flat, dull text. His cynical yet lovable observations and unique takes on even the most mundane of events make many, many passages memorable and almost every single page an enjoyable experience. I have done a great deal of reading in my day and only four authors make me laugh out loud. They are Dave Barry, Woody Allen, Dave Baur and...Bill Bryson. I literally had to stop bringing his books to a favorite lunchtime restaurant for fear of projectile chortling side orders of Melba Toast onto the tables of a nearby unsuspecting patrons. Did I mention he finally curbed his tendency toward tangential adolescent forays?

Rating:
Summary: Heat and Dust
Review: Not up there with 'The Lost Continent' (a little masterpiece), but an enjoyable read nontheless.

Some grating factual errors, and the odd oversight (apart from omission of Tasmania). When he stopped overnight at Hay, he didn't notice Hell, just up the road. Or nearby Booligal. Thus, the saying '... Hay, Hell and Booligal', most evocative of heat, dust and limitless horizon. He aslo missed everybody's favourite place name, Upotipotpon.

He might also have sourced his title, which is celebrated in:

'I love a sunburnt country/ A land of sweeping plains/ Of rugged mountain ranges/ Of droughts and flooding rains

I love her far horizons/ I love her jewelled sea/ Her beauties and her terrors/ The wide brown land for me.'

For all that, well done Bill, and come back again.

Rating:
Summary: Kangaroo Kute
Review: Bryson continues his travel odysseys with his Quest in finding the Quirks and Quaints on our planets only island-country-continent with historical anecdotes along-the-way makes for a pleasant visional journey. His explanation of the "right-hand-turn" traffic laws in Melbourne brought back the mother lode of remembrance to this writer of that beautiful city and country.

Rating:
Summary: did the sun get to his head?
Review: I can only suggest that if you've heard that Bryson is funny, you really want to check out his earlier books "The Lost Continent" (about a trip through the US) and "Neither Here nor There" (about a trip through Europe). His keep-it-moving gather-no-moss travel style is ill-suited to Australia, which is simply so sparsely populated over so much of the continent as to be absurd -- and yet he never comments on the absurdity of his choice. This book is, by comparison to his earlier efforts, a big old snoozer -- skip this one in favor of those.

Rating:
Summary: A Humorous Six Star Introduction To Australia
Review: In a Sunburned Country, or "Down Under" as it is marketed in Australia, is a funny, affectionate look at the country, people and habits.

As an Australian, I was surprised to learn a few things about "my country". A light-hearted leap across a continent that makes you feel good about yourself, humanity, life.

Into the "big"?watch out for the Giant Pineapple, Banana and Lobster, not to mention the worms.

Definitely one for anyone interested in Australia.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Have Said It Better
Review: Having spent a decent amount of time in Australia myself, this book brought back many memories. I've visited a number of the places Bryson describes and he's right on - my only suggestion to him would have been to spend a few more days on the drive from Darwin to Alice Springs to get a true feel for life in the middle of nowhere! There's nothing more daunting, and in a strange way thrilling, about turning off onto a road and seeing a sign that reads "500 km to the next petrol station." And if you've never been there, Bryson's account of life in Australia will make you curious enough to buy a plane ticket and go. He acurately describes all of the wonderful, and sometimes curious, things about the world Down Under and his book made me homesick for the Sunburned Country myself!