Zo'n 14 uur voor vertrek naar andere oorden nog even ruim de tijd genomen om deze parel van een reisverhaal uit te lezen. Wat een dolle rit om dit boek parallel met mijn eigen reis door Australië te lezen. Vaak las ik over een plek die we net de dag voor- of nadien zelf bezochten en herkende ik de stereotypen die Bryson beschrijft. Hier en daar mocht hij iets meer aan 'killing your darlings' doen, ik heb dan ook de vrijheid genomen om enkele stukken over te slaan. Toch heb ik heel hard gelachen en ook veel bijgeleerd over een land dat beschreven wordt als 'Such a lot to find in it, but such a lot to find it in. You could never see half of it.' En dat is precies wat ik nu ook voel. Niet helemaal klaar om Australië vaarwel te zeggen. Misschien wordt het dan toch maar een 'tot ziens'.

(Mocht ik dit boek gewoon thuis hebben gelezen had ik waarschijnlijk maar 4 sterren gegeven, maar de totaalbeleving primeert hier!)

Just delightful. I do note, however, that when I'm 7/8 of the way through one of his books, I never want it to end and plan to immediately go get another. At 8/8, his bitterness (which I am wholeheartedly in sympathy with) has worn me to a nub, and I know I'll take a good long break.

This was an Audible Daily Deal that I picked up a few months ago, and thoroughly enjoyed, as I have done most of Bryson's travelogues that I have read. Mixing the usual facts and anecdotes about the country in question with his experiences while travelling there using his trademark dry humour, Bryson keeps the reader both informed and entertained, as is customary with his work - testament to why he is so widely read and popular as an author. One that I'd definitely recommend.

I developed a taste for Bill Bryson last year when I read his Short History of Nearly Everything, an ambitious attempt to trace the history of life, the universe and everything in just 574 pages. While many of the scientific discoveries outlined in the book were a little beyond me, I thoroughly enjoyed Bryson's descriptions of the larger-than-life personalities behind the discoveries, which really brought the science described to life. So when I found out that he had also written a travelogue of a journey across the country I may soon call home -- Australia -- I simply had to read it.

Australia, for those of you who have never been there, is one of the most colourful places on earth. It has a history so bizarre that it makes China's seem normal by comparison. It has insane expanses of the most arid desert imaginable, as well as some of the world's most beautiful beaches, where unfortunately you can't swim due to the prevalence of sharks, crocs, box jellyfish, stingrays and murderous rip currents. It houses beyond a shadow of a doubt the world's most interesting flora and fauna, including twelve-foot earthworms and living fossils. (And you thought kangaroos were exotic. Ha.) And if all that weren't interesting enough, the locals are slightly mad. They eat meat pies floating in pea soup, are crazy about cricket and consider shorts and knee-length socks proper attire for middle-aged bus drivers. In short, it's a unique place and I love it. I look forward to moving there in a few months' time.

Bill Bryson also loves Australia, and it shows. While he likes to remind his readers of the country's amazing collection of deathly animals (over and over again) and poke fun at the locals and their weird habits, his affection for the place shines through in every chapter, and it's quite infectious. By describing his own travels and those of early settlers, explorers and naturalists, he provides the reader with an appreciation for how vast and unwelcoming the country is, and how utterly unique. He provides background information on events of which few non-Australians will have heard (such as the fact that a nuclear bomb may have been detonated in the outback without anyone noticing, and that an Australian Prime Minister once vanished, never to be seen again), waxes lyrical on trees and animals so bizarre that you'll want to hop on the first plane to Australia to check them out for yourself (again, kangaroos are only the beginning), explains why you should go and see Ayers Rock even if you've already seen hundreds of photos of it, and intersperses all this useful information with a winning combination of self-deprecating humour, bizarre anecdotes, absurd dialogue and entertaining accounts of encounters with fellow travellers and locals. The resulting book is not only completely recognisable to anyone who has visited Australia, but hugely appealing to anyone who hasn't. I doubt anyone can read this book without wishing to book a flight to Oz immediately afterwards.

If I have any complaint about Down Under, it is that there is too little of it. While Bryson's writing is entertaining and informative, his choice of places to visit and describe seems rather random and limited. I wish he had done more travelling, gone further into the interior of the country and left all traces of luxury behind him for a while, so as to emulate the pioneers and explorers whose exploits he relates with such gusto. I also think the book would have benefited from slightly more rigorous editing, as parts of it seem rather hastily written. For all its small flaws, though, Down Under (released in the US as In a Sunburned Country) is a fascinating read which has whetted my appetite for more Bryson travelogues. And for a return to Oz, but that's another story.

As expected this was a mix of fun facts and a companion travel piece. Being Australian I’m sure I enjoyed this more than the average non Australian reader but I could see that some parts especially the parts apart about politics and cricket could bore a few readers who aren’t already familiar with our peculiar sports and politicians. I enjoyed the read and found it fun when injected with Bryson’s humourous anecdotes along the way. I also realised how very little I’ve seen of my own ridiculously large country. Makes me want to pack up the car and go for a road trip and see something other than the East Coast of Australia and the main cities. It’s always a shame when tourists see more of my own country than I have.

This book is a singular achievement, considering it nearly made me split my sides laughing while enlightening me about the politics, history, geography, ecology, and psyche of the weird, monumentally empty country that is Australia. For instance, did you know that Australians are by far the biggest gamblers in the world? Or that until 1949, there was no such thing as Australian citizenship? All Australians were Britons by default. Or that Australia lost the highest number of men as a percentage of the population in World War I? There are so many things we just don't know about Australia, and this book is easily the best way to find out. As Bill Bryson puts it, 

"Once you leave Australia, Australia ceases to be. What a strange, sad thought that is. I can understand it, of course. Australia is mostly empty and a long way away. Its population is small and its role in the world consequently peripheral. It doesn't have coups, recklessly overfish, arm disagreeable despots, grow coca in provocative quantities or throw its weight around in a brash and unseemly manner. It is stable and peaceful and good. It doesn't need watching, and so we don't. But I will tell you this: the loss is entirely ours."

It is sometimes easy to forget just how mind-bogglingly big Australia is. This vast, vast country is approximately 7.7m km@ in size and even though it is an island, it is big enough to count as a continent in its own right. It separated from Pangaea millions of years ago and the paths that evolution took with the flora and fauna were very different when compared to the remainder of the world. The people who first inhabited it are pretty special too, traces of their occupation can be found as far back as 65,000 years ago and they have a deep and passionate connection to the land as well as a rich understanding of how to survive in the blistering heat. It teems with life too; and most of it wants to kill you…

Bill Bryson had never ever visited there before. It was a country that scared him, but he was to find that the folk that live there are the total opposite of the creatures. Their cheerful extrovert personalities meant that he fitted in really well and he slowly falls in love with the country. His journeys take him from Darwin down to Alice Springs and to see the marvel that is Uluru, around the cities of the west coast, across the endless desert to Perth and he tries not to lose where the boat is on the Great Barrier reef.

If you have ever read a Bryson before you’ll come to know that these journeys are a rich vein of self depreciating humour as he observes life as it happens around him and this was as highly entertaining as his other books with several genuine laugh out loud moments. It has been a little while since I have read a Bryson and if you haven’t then I can recommend them as he is still such very very funny travel writer.

How do I love this book? Let me count the ways...Better yet, read it for yourself and you'll discover your own reasons to love it. I honestly cannot think of one person to whom I would not recommend this book. It's fascinating, funny, and fact-filled. I'd bet even native Aussies could learn a thing or five they didn't know about their country.

Australia is an even more interesting place than I thought. Let Bill Bryson give you an entertaining and educational tour. He researched many books and questioned many people in preparation for his visits to Australia.

The book covers Australia's history, natural wonders and weather patterns, a whole host of deadly critters found nowhere else in the world, some really bizarre people both past and present, and his own hilarious and harrowing experiences Down Under. All explored and recorded with a childlike sense of wonder and a funny man's sense of the absurd.

How much do I love this book? I actually cut back on reading it when I got near the end because I loved it so much I didn't want to finish!

EL libro de viajes. THA Travel book. Todo lo hace bien, este Bill Bryson. Tras la lectura de este libro, mi ilusión por visitar Australia alcanzó cotas insospechadas. Cualquier episodio cotidiano queda transformado en una hilarante aventura cuando pasa a través de los ojos de BB. Es un gran libro, que encanta incluso a los australianos. Escrito con muy buen humor y mucho detalle. Absolutamente recomendable.

I almost forgot how much fun it is to read books about foreign countries and cultures. As soon as opened In a Sunburned Country, memories of reading travelogues about U.S. rushed back to me. Oh, how amazed I was those years ago to learn that apparently many Americans put their T-shirts on to swim in the pool and wear extra underwear underneath their swimming trucks (I am originally from one of those speedo countries) or that to go to a school dance you just have to have a boy-friend who is obligated to bring you a corsage or that American toilets already have water in them so that when you... no, I am not going to elaborate on this one.

What I am getting at is that Bill Bryson's book about Australia is full of entertaining facts like that plus more - he also introduces a lot of information about history of Australia, its landscape, nature, etc. Basically, tons of information for us, people completely unfamiliar with this distant country, to finally learn something, anything about it beyond what's written in The Thorn Birds.

What especially stood out for me:

1) Australia in fact was originally forcefully populated by criminals from England (Kat wasn't joking).

2) The country/continent is a dangerous place where you can expect to be poisoned by any insect and jelly fish or eaten by a crocodile.

3) Australians love building big things in the shapes of other things - Big Lobster, for instance (once again, Kat wasn't kidding in her Giant Mango review)

4) How Aborigines found their way to the continent of Australia tens of thousands years ago is still a mystery and they weren't even considered people worthy of being mentioned on Australian census up until 1970s.

5) Non-whites weren't allowed to immigrate to Australia until the same 1970s.

... and much much more.

All in all, Bill Bryson succeeds in drawing a comprehensive picture of Australia, a vast, unexplored, beautiful, dangerous, young, distant country with some unattractive spots in its past (and maybe present).

DNF at 20%

An entertaining book in so many ways and I would recommend it to anyone. Sadly, I had some issues with the author that come from my being an Aussie and with him for being a bullshitter.
Of course, considering my origins, I should like to read a book by a first class bullshitter, seeing as Aussies are renowned for their special abilities in that department. However, in this book he is trying to pass his fabrications off as truth and I don't like that at all.
Not everything you read in this book is true and Bryson elaborates a lot in an effort just to be funny. So, if you go into this book remembering that not everything is as it seems, then maybe you will enjoy the ride and come out the other end not disliking my country.

A final comment...I had an ENORMOUS issue with the disrespect Bill Bryson showed to the Aboriginal nation. He portrated them as brainless victms moving about on the peripheral of white society. A large portion of the aboriginal people are proud and very aware if who they are and their history. Bryson buys into the aboriginal issue half heartedly basing his opinions on a few points given him by second or third hand.
He casts opinions about the 'poor' aboriginals and yet never took himself to an aboriginal community or visited any aboriginal and Islander schools or heritage centres. He visited an aboriginal museum in Alice Springs, and then proceeded to be critical and obnoxious about there only being photos of relics on display not real relics. Real relics aren't on display for cultural reasons, but he didn't seem to respect that. It was just another thing for Bryson to mock.
I nearly gave the book 2 stars, and now I am finishing this review I am wondering why I didn't, but I must remember that there is some entertainment to be had in this book. I just wish he didn't provide
entertainment at expense of others so much.