In a Sunburned CountryEvery time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity. Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. |
From inside the book
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... beer had danced off the table in his tent. The problem was that there was no obvious explanation. The seismograph traces didn't fit the profile for an earthquake or mining explosion, and anyway the blast was 170 times more powerful than ...
... beer had danced off the table in his tent. The problem was that there was no obvious explanation. The seismograph traces didn't fit the profile for an earthquake or mining explosion, and anyway the blast was 170 times more powerful than ...
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... beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Rupert Murdoch no longer lives there. Life doesn't get much better than this. This was my fifth trip and this time, for the first time, I was going to see the ...
... beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Rupert Murdoch no longer lives there. Life doesn't get much better than this. This was my fifth trip and this time, for the first time, I was going to see the ...
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... beer and watching the evening slink in, I realized that my fee might be marginally negotiable. I was about to ask Leon—a city man by birth and, I would have guessed, inclination—what possessed him and his pleasant wife, Marge, to stay ...
... beer and watching the evening slink in, I realized that my fee might be marginally negotiable. I was about to ask Leon—a city man by birth and, I would have guessed, inclination—what possessed him and his pleasant wife, Marge, to stay ...
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... beer, and of course there were no coolers in those days. Beer was room temperature—and room temperature was 110 degrees. No air-conditioning either, of course. No electricity at all, unless you had your own generator.” “So when did you ...
... beer, and of course there were no coolers in those days. Beer was room temperature—and room temperature was 110 degrees. No air-conditioning either, of course. No electricity at all, unless you had your own generator.” “So when did you ...
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... beer commercial ever made. It now gets by, evidently, on the visits of film crews and of occasional tourists like us. Broken Hill has had tough times, too. Even by Australian standards, it is a long way from anywhere—1,170 kilometers ...
... beer commercial ever made. It now gets by, evidently, on the visits of film crews and of occasional tourists like us. Broken Hill has had tough times, too. Even by Australian standards, it is a long way from anywhere—1,170 kilometers ...
Contents
Part Two Civilized Australia the Boomerang | |
Chapter 10 | |
Chapter 11 | |
Chapter 12 | |
Chapter 13 | |
Chapter 15 | |
Chapter 16 | |
Chapter 17 | |
Chapter 18 | |
Chapter 19 | |
Dedication | |
Bibliography | |
Part Three Around the Edges | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aborigines actually Adelaide Alice Springs Allan American asked aviation beach beer Bill Bryson box jellyfish Broken Hill Bryson building Canberra Carmel coast couldn’t couple course crocodile Daly Waters Darwin desert didn’t distance driving earth empty feet flight Games half highway hills hundred miles Indian Pacific kangaroos kilometers Kingsford Smith land landscape living look Melbourne million minutes morning museum named nation nearly never nodded Nungesser Olympics once outback Park passed Perth place called plane Queensland realized reef road rock seemed seen smile South Wales sport stand stood story street stroll stromatolites Sturt Highway Surfers Paradise swimming Sydney television tell There’s things thought thousand took town trees turned Uluru Victoria visitors walked watched Western Australia What’s wonder young