Rating: 
Summary: Not so good !
Review: A very casual treatment of an interesting continent ! Not much of new information. a light read.
Rating: 
Summary: What a wonderful country
Review: I didn't know anything about Australia before reading this book. Bryson goes into detail about history, creatures and plants. That gets tedious for some readers. But it made me want to go to each city on my own. This was the perfect book to read before my trip to Oz.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative.
Review: As a homesick Aussie living Canada, this was a temporary band-aid. This was a really funny book, I laughed out loud constantly. I learned a lot from it also, it made me want to seek out more information on the topics he touched on. I learned great conversation pieces, and I always wanted to read bits out to people around me. It has only made me love my country even more and I think it is an excellent introduction for any prospective visitor.
Rating:
Summary: Travel writing + sarcasm = Great book!
Review: Bryson is at his best in the country he loves best: Oz! His travel writing is awesome - you feel like you are there running into the same crazy people and seeing the same great scenary. Thanks, Bill!
Rating:
Summary: Straight to you from the land down-under
Review: Bill Bryson is a familiar travel writer that presents his material with a personal gusto that keeps the reader coming back for more. He gallantly approaches Australia and it's inhabitants with an open mind and heart that spills over into his writing. This book is the product of a bittersweet mixture of facts, statistics, and observations made during his wanderings about this vast continent. Bryson is quick to enjoy the simplest pleasures and chat up the locals with an ease that makes him likable to the people he meets as well as the reader. To put it in his words, this is a continent "packed with unappreciated wonders", and his writing places us right in the middle of it all. I picked up this book after reading A WALK IN THE WOODS which was another excellent choice by this author. Kelsana 8/31/02
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Loving and Adventurous, with Lots of Drinks
Review: Bill Bryson is consisently one of the funniest writers around, particularly in In a Sunburned Country, as he stumbles his way around the great continent of Australia. And he does almost literally go all around it, as well as taking several journeys into its dusty heart. My only regret with this book is that I read it after coming back from Australia rather than before I began that particular journey. I do not know that I would have changed any destinations, as the author is most hilarious and poignant when describing places into which one would probably never venture, but this book makes one appreciate the Australia that one encounters much more fully. This book is recommended for those who have seen Australia, those who will see Australia and those who may never see Austarlia. In short, this book will amuse and delight everyone, much like the wonderful country it documents. During the day see something you can see no where else in the world and in the evening go to pub and relive the experience over a few pints, but first read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great read.
Review: I'm an Aussie living in the USA. This book was a great read. Very funny while informative at the same time...I even leant a lot about my own country. Bill also likes a beer or two at the end of a long day and taking the ... out of certain people(including his own countrymen) with his sharp dry razor wit. In my mind this just about makes him an horary Aussie in my mind. You will warm to him and his experiences. He's is a good bloke.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Bill Bryson's excellent writing makes "In a Sunburned Country" a good read. I felt like I was traveling with him and I'm now more knowledgeable about Australia's people, politics, geography and history. Bryson's books are also wonderfully funny. And he doesn't mind making fun of himself. I loved his description of what happens when he falls asleep. "I'm not a discreet and fetching sleeper...I sleep as if injected with a powerful experimental muscle relaxant...My head tips forward to empty drool onto my lap, then falls back to begin loading again. And I snore, hugely and helplessly with rubber lips flapping and prolonged steam-valve exhalations." Another of my favorite stories involved Bryson and a friend having too much to drink at a bar. The following morning Bryson asked his friend, "Did I disgrace myself?" His friend replied, "You're doing a house swap next summer with a family from Korea." Bill responds, "I pursed my lips thoughtfully. "North or South?" I asked. When his friend said he did not know Bryson accused him of making the story up. Bryson said his friend "reached over and deftly plucked from my shirt pocket a business card, which he presented to me. It said, "Park Ho Lee, Meat Wholesaler" or something and gave and address in Pusan. Underneath it, in my own handwriting, it said, "June 10-August 27. No worries." I placed the card, folded once, in the ashtray."
I also appreciate Bryson's willingness to be a human rights advocate (he brings attention to the plight of the Aboriginal people) and he's a powerful voice for the preservation and conservation of our planet.
Rating:
Summary: Bryson with the Aussies
Review: I enjoyed this book, indeed I've enjoyed each of Bryson's books that I've read so far. You get not only a travel book, but snippets of history too: Bryson is an inquisitive traveller, reading up on the country he's going to visit, picking out the things he'd really like to see, but not being afraid to improvise as the fancy takes him. To build on that, I think that Bryson is at his best when he is organised but not too organised: for example, this book is an account of a series of visits to Australia, the first one of which was essentially to travel on the Indian Pacific railway - but it felt a bit too "chaperoned" for me. The other journeys in the book were more the real Bryson exploring for himself, and were thus far more interesting. Bryson's Australia comes across as a welcoming country (if you exclude Darwin and savage dogs in a Sydney park), and one which is full of surprises (mostly because large tracts of it are still unexplored). Also, as Bryson repeatedly points out, the place is full of flora and fauna which are (to greater and lesser degrees) harmful to life and limb: as on various occasions in the book, is the beer! There is a certain amount of repetition in the book (not to an overly irritating degree though) and in all, I thought it was Bryson at his best: in particular his attempts to understand cricket were great stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Informative
Review: Bill Bryson never fails to make me laugh. This book will take you through a place you probably don't know very much about. Bryson does excellent research and presents it in a fun way.
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