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Title details for In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson - Available

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Every 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    July 5, 2000

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415950777
      • File size: 343119 KB
      • Duration: 11:54:49

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In Australia, Bill Bryson has an intrinsically fascinating subject: spaces extreme in their vastness, primeval landscapes and improbable creatures. His travelogue, sprinkled with history and contemporary culture notes, rarely rises much above this established level of interest, though the stories he favors about encounters with deadly animals, the triumphs and blunders of early explorers, and his own exploits are often amusing. Although Bryson occasionally sounds like a disgruntled hotel reviewer, generally his even, placid reading allows the wonders of the place--ancient, stirring Uluru; foraging echidnas; dusty outback sunsets--and his experiences with them to come vividly to life. J.M.D. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 29, 2000
      With the Olympics approaching, books on Australia abound. Still, Bryson's lively take is a welcome recess from packaged, staid guides. The author of A Walk in the Woods draws readers in campfire-style, relating wacky anecdotes and random facts gathered on multiple trips down under, all the while lightening the statistics with infusions of whimsical humor. Arranged loosely by region, the book bounces between Canberra and Melbourne, the Outback and the Gold Coast, showing Bryson alone and with partners in tow. His unrelenting insistence that Australia is the most dangerous place on earth ("If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback") spins off dozens of tales involving jellyfish, spiders and the world's 10 most poisonous snakes. Pitfalls aside, Bryson revels in the beauty of this country, home to ravishing beaches and countless unique species ("80% of all that lives in Australia, plant and animal, lives nowhere else"). He glorifies the country, alternating between awe, reverence and fear, and he expresses these sentiments with frankness and candor, via truly funny prose and a conversational pace that is at once unhurried and captivating. Peppered with seemingly irrelevant (albeit amusing) yarns, this work is a delight to read, whether or not a trip to the continent is planned. First serial to Outside magazine; BOMC selection.

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2000
      Bryson toughs it out in Australia.

      Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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