In a Sunburned CountryEvery time Bill Bryson walks out the door memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion up, down, and over the Appalachian Trail (well, most of it) resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. Now he has traveled across the world and all the way Down Under to Australia, a shockingly under-discovered country with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. In a Sunburned Country is his report on what he found there--a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity. Australia is a country that exists on a vast scale. It is the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. Despite being the most desiccated, infertile, and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents, it teems with life. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else: sharks, crocodiles, the ten most deadly poisonous snakes on the planet, fluffy yet toxic caterpillars, seashells that actually attack you, and the unbelievable box jellyfish (don't ask). The dangerous riptides of the sea and the sun-baked wastes of the outback both lie in wait for the unwary. It's one tough country. Bill Bryson adores it, of course, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond the beaten tourist path. Here is a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister lost--yes, lost--while swimming at sea to Japanese cult members who may have set off an atomic bomb (sic) entirely unnoticed on their500,000-acre property in the great western desert. Wherever he goes (and Bryson goes just about everywhere) he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging--the beaming products of a land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine. On occasion the Aborigines, a remote and mysterious race with a tragic history, make a haunting appearance in this book. But by and large Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. Published just in time for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, In a Sunburned Country offers the best of all possible introductions to what may well be the best of all possible nations. Even with those jellyfish. |
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Page 96
... buildings in what is known as the Parliamentary Zone and the filling of the lake , what was remarkable was how little changed the city looked . Thus briefed , I was eager now to see it all with my own eyes , so I left the building and ...
... buildings in what is known as the Parliamentary Zone and the filling of the lake , what was remarkable was how little changed the city looked . Thus briefed , I was eager now to see it all with my own eyes , so I left the building and ...
Page 192
... building . I walked along it to see what it was . A sign announced it as the Myall Creek Memorial Hall . It wasn't much of a monument to a terrible slaughter , but at least it was something . Then on a wall of the building I noticed a ...
... building . I walked along it to see what it was . A sign announced it as the Myall Creek Memorial Hall . It wasn't much of a monument to a terrible slaughter , but at least it was something . Then on a wall of the building I noticed a ...
Page 226
... building in the manner of a demented building inspector , examining it from every angle and from various distances , held up a silencing finger to Allan , who watched bewildered from the driver's seat , then came back 226 Bill Bryson.
... building in the manner of a demented building inspector , examining it from every angle and from various distances , held up a silencing finger to Allan , who watched bewildered from the driver's seat , then came back 226 Bill Bryson.
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Aborigines Adelaide Alan Alice Springs Allan arrived asked beach beer boat box jellyfish Broken Hill building bush Cairns Canberra Carmel coast couple course crocodile Daintree Daly Waters Darwin desert drive earth empty feet half Harold Holt head highway hills hundred miles Indian Pacific jellyfish kangaroos kilometers Kingsford Smith land landscape living lonely look Melbourne Menindee million minutes morning museum named National nearly never nodded once outback Park passed Perth place called Queensland realized reef road rock seemed seen sharks smile South Australia South Wales stand stood story street stroll stromatolites Stuart Highway Surfers Paradise swim Sydney tell There's thing thought thousand tion took town trees turned Uluru Victoria visitors walked watched Western Australia wonder young