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
Results 1-5 of 36
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... and underorganized, government scientists in Canberra decided to make one final, preemptive effort to find the ants alive. So a party of them set off in convoy across the country. On the second day out, while driving across the South.
... and underorganized, government scientists in Canberra decided to make one final, preemptive effort to find the ants alive. So a party of them set off in convoy across the country. On the second day out, while driving across the South.
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Bill Bryson. On the second day out, while driving across the South Australia desert, one of their vehicles began to smoke and sputter, and they were forced to make an unscheduled overnight stop at a lonely pause in the highway called ...
Bill Bryson. On the second day out, while driving across the South Australia desert, one of their vehicles began to smoke and sputter, and they were forced to make an unscheduled overnight stop at a lonely pause in the highway called ...
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... driving around your own city conveying a slumped and twitching heap from one unperceived landmark to another. I looked around dumbly, not certain for the moment who these people were, cleared my throat, and pulled myself to a more ...
... driving around your own city conveying a slumped and twitching heap from one unperceived landmark to another. I looked around dumbly, not certain for the moment who these people were, cleared my throat, and pulled myself to a more ...
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... corrugations, as jarring as driving over railway ties. We jounced along for hours, raising enormous clouds of red dust in our wake, through a landscape brilliantly hot and empty, over tabletop lands flecked with low saltbush and spiky.
... corrugations, as jarring as driving over railway ties. We jounced along for hours, raising enormous clouds of red dust in our wake, through a landscape brilliantly hot and empty, over tabletop lands flecked with low saltbush and spiky.
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... driving over the previous days we had covered only the tiniest fraction of land surface—a freckle, almost literally, on the face of Australia. It is such an immense country, and we still had 3,227 kilometers of it to get through before ...
... driving over the previous days we had covered only the tiniest fraction of land surface—a freckle, almost literally, on the face of Australia. It is such an immense country, and we still had 3,227 kilometers of it to get through before ...
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