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Summary: Keep them coming!
Review: Bill Bryson's account of his trip to Australia is fantastic! He travels the country, sharing fascinating tidbits of history in every location he stops in. This book was about 98 percent as entertaining as "A Walk in the Woods", although that book is still my favorite travel book of all time. Still, after reading this book, if I had the money and the time, I'd go to Australia tomorrow with this book as my guide!
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Summary: very fun travel book on Australia
Review: This was a delightful book, one that I read within two days and left me just salivating for not only for more from Bill Bryson, truly one of the best travel writers and one of the finest humorists writing these days, but for more on Australia! Just as Bryson says at the end of his travels in Australia he wanted to push one to just one more destination, I too wanted him to do that, and will be sure to find more interesting books to read on that wonderful country (and continent).
Bryson says it best when he writes that not only the many interesting bits of human and natural history but the entire country itself are often "unaccountably overlooked." His travels throughout the tropics, deserts, and cities of Australia show that it is a "preposterously outsized" country completely filled with "unappreciated wonders." Bryson clearly loves Australia (and says so numerous times) and goes to great pains to show us the real Australia, the Australia off the beaten path as it were, many times an Australia that many Australians themselves never see, doing so with respect, humor, and a sense of wonder. What are some of these "unappreciated wonders" you may ask? Did you know that in 1967 prime minister Harold Holt was strolling along the beach in Victoria and vanished without a trace, his body never found? I've never read about that anywhere! Or that a large-scale disturbance was recorded by seismographs on May 28, 1993 in the Great Victoria Desert of Western Australia, one that may have been the results of an atomic explosion detonated by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrinkyo? The country is so vast and the deserts so remote and exceedingly hard to survive in that the it was four years before the explosion was ever investigated. News about Australia he notes so rarely reaches the outside world; it is almost as if it were on its own planet.
Australia as you probably know is home to a great deal of interesting wildlife. Thought not really a natural history writer Bryson does cover some of these interesting animals, some in some detail, such as the box jellyfish (most deadly jellyfish in the world, so awful that victims have been known to scream even when rendered unconscious), the cassowary (flightless, man-sized bird of the rain forests armed with a razor-sharp claw on each foot), the blue-ringed octopus ("whose caress is instant death"), salt water crocodiles (which do occasionally he notes attack boats and even eat people), twelve-foot long earth worms, wombats, the platypus, the dromedary camel (gone feral in the Outback, only place in the world where it can be found in the wild), and the taipan (Australia's deadliest snake). Interesting organisms are not limited to the animal kingdom, as Bryson visits the stromatolites of Shark Bay in Western Australia (essentially living rocks colonized by cyanobacteria, an example of life that was dominant on Earth 3.5 billion years ago) and the karri (the sequoia of Australia, with can be up to 250 feet high and 50 feet around, found in the forests with the jarrah tree, nearly as large).
Bryson though is at his best when he tours the cities, towns, and hole-in-the wall places of Australia, from Perth to Sydney to Melbourne to Alice Springs and beyond. In Australia's capital, Canberra, he finds a very unusual city, one with such a huge amount of space devoted to landscaping that it was essentially one "extremely large park with city hidden in it," though he did note that it was quite an achievement to virtually hide a city of 330,000 among so many trees, meadows, and lakes. While there he tries to make sense of Australia's national politics, a subject he finds nearly hopelessly confusing (not aided by the fact that little news get out about Australia to aid one in tracking it), though does appreciate the more colorful language used by some in Parliament House (such as the phrases hopeless nong and mangy maggot). He visits both Sydney (home to its famous harbor, Harbour Bridge, and the Opera House) and Melbourne, two cities that forever are to be rivals within Australia, cities that have competed for hosting the Olympic games and are the butts of each other's jokes. He marvels at Alice Springs, a city that is literally nearly thousands of miles down desert highway in the barren interior yet is a major city complete with K-Marts and thriving on tourism from Ayers Rock. He visits Perth, the most remote large city on Earth, built on the fabulous mineral wealth of Western Australia, a city somewhat closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. Bryson revels at the glorious late 1950s feel of some areas of rural Australia (a feeling extending even to the music seemingly favored on the radio) and the punishing heat and bewildering solitude of the desert. Bryson covers a lot of territory not only in terms of geography but also culture and history, discussing Australia's views of their country, its fascination with outlaw "heroes" from its past such as Ned Kelly, their views on government, the sport of cricket, Australian immigration and multiculturalism, the history of the exploration of its desert interior as well as its early settlement, and the story of the Aborigines, both their origins and the history of how they were treated (and are being treated) by White Australia. A great book, I really recommend it.
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Summary: Laughed The Length and Breadth of Australia
Review: This is an amzing book. I bought it before the Olympics, stopped when the Games started... and didn't pick it up again (a few thousand other books and activities got in the way.) Look, if you want to get all the details on Australia or any other subject that Bryson has covered, then buy the typical guidebook. If, on the other hand, you want to share the experiences and interests of a brilliant, humorous, and above all else, curious, human being (who can write with the brief clarity of Kurt Vonnegut), then buy this book! As a younger man, before the metal in my back, etc etc, I would have wanted to run or bicycle across countries. Now, walking is fine by me. In fact, reading this kind of book is enough exploration for my life now.
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Summary: A bookshop tour
Review: Billy Bryson is a talented writer. He just needs to get out of his car more. I just finished this book, and although the writer's patter could make acupuncture interesting, the lack of effort in this one is staggering. Billy prefers to write about huge walks in safe city suburbs, visiting bookshops and coffee shops, oh and museums. Maybe all those things are impossible in the US.. Maybe it is all those dangerous critters that kept him on the narrow path.. I really don't think he needs to travel to write at this level. It seems he could do this without treading outside of his study. Most of this book is paraphrased from other books ( a large bibliography is tell tale), and the personal content is stuff not worthy of print. In A Sunburnt Country he barely steps out of his car, except for when he doesn't have a car and is walking the streets. I do not recommend this to anyone. It is a lazy effort.
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Summary: Fun
Review: This was yet another fun outing with Mr. Bryson, although I must say, not quite as much fun as A Walk in the Woods. Definitely enjoyable (and interesting), though, especially if you're a Bryson fan like me.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining read but not for travellers
Review: Since I was planning to backpack around Australia I thought I'd read this book to discover some interesting spots that weren't in the guidebooks. Unfortunately this book did not fill those needs. Mr Bryson appears to enjoy reading about countries more than actually travelling around them. There are many wonderful anecdotes from various literary sources (although some are far from original, despite claims to the contrary) but very little in the way of interesting experiences. For example, he spends six months in Australia and then whoops with joy upon encountering his first bit of wild life in Perth; sorry but you can't miss the kangaroos, dingos and wallabies here - he must have had his eyes shut. Much of the book is dedicated to the country's cities (which aren't particularly unique) with only the final third actually about the more interesting countryside and outback. This book is well written and entertaining (apart from endless comments about how people 50 years ago were so happy compared to now, and frankly stupid statements such as "It's delightful to find a city [Perth] here in the first place") and if you're interested in the history of Australia then it has some great tales that you're unlikely to have heard of before. If though, like me, you'd hoped to hear about some of the more outlandish places and characters from Down Under then you'll be sorely disappointed.
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Summary: Pack the bags and head for Australia...
Review: That's how you'll feel once you read this book. Despite the fact thatAustralia is one of the most dangerous continents on earth (if not the most dangerous), you will still feel the pull to visit and, possibly, become a resident. The book recounts Bryson's assignment to essentially circumnavigate and criss-cross Australia, reporting on its people, its sights, and its culture. At each city or site he visits, he humorously recounts why its well known, who died there and why (for some odd reason, people keep setting out to cross the Outback and are never heard from or seen again), and what he found interesting about it. Bryson points out the many dangers of Australia. Among them, of the ten deadliest snakes in the world, all ten happen to reside in Australia. For whatever reason, Bryson's writing style grabs you and pulls you. Almost like a thriller where you can't wait to get to the end, you'll fight falling asleep as you read late into the night while trying to find out what oddity he is going to encounter next in his travels. Highly entertaining, informative, and recommended.
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Summary: my fave Bryson book so far
Review: This is the fourth book I've read by Bryson and it's my favorite so far. The titular country is Australia and Bryson clearly loves the country even though he repeatedly reminds you that it can be very dangerous. Of the ten most dangerous snakes in the world, all ten are Australian. And then there's the lethal Red Back spider, the deadly blue-ringed octopus, and box jellyfish, perhaps the most feared animal of all. One expert had his wrist accidentally brush up a small bit of tentacle and described it has being akin to having a lit cigarette held to your skin for at least 30 seconds. Bill Bryson is often amusing and I found myself chuckling aloud in several places. And the book, like the country, is fascinating. As Bryson says, it's an interesting place. The Outback is one of the largest, hottest, deadliest places to find yourself but had countless explorers taking trips into it. Temperatures within can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. You can get literally cooked in there. I usually gravitate towards fiction but this is one of the more gripping non-fiction books I've come across. Whether he's relating a curious anecdote, or kvetching about the tedious aspects of travel, Bryson is always entertaining.
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Summary: Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's in a car I go.....
Review: Mr. Bryson, despite his having spent 2 decades in England, strikes me as the consumate American traveler. His approach is comfortable to the 'typical' American sensibility. As unoffensive as it is somewhat pedantic. But that seems, mean, and I don't mean to be - mean, I mean. He worried me when he stated the name of that giant rock in the middle of the country as "Ayers" just after he explained that it's now called "Uluru" - but then I *got* it when during his visit there he went back and forth between the names equally. Maybe that's the problem I have with this book - too diplomatic. But he loves the place and it's apparent-ness, and that's cool. I think I wanted him to solve the Aoboriginal mess while he was there. Is that unreasonable? See also "The Happy Isles of Oceana" by Paul Thoreux. It's a bit more scathing. Ok, I'm mean.
Rating:
Summary: Good one, mate!
Review: I've been reading a lot of Bill Bryson, and let me tell you, plain and simple: this is his best.
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