Book Review - In A Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson is best known for his humorous travel writing. Previously, I had read two of Bryon's other books. One was titled, I'm a Stranger Here Myself. This book was about Bryson's return to living in the United States after living in Great Britain for twenty years or so. His writing portrayed how differently Americans are from the rest of the world, from the cars we drive to our love of fast food restaurants. The second book of his I read was titled, A Walk in the Woods. This book was about Bryson's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, from start to finish (Georgia to Maine). He accurately portrayed the difficulties in hiking pretty much the entire east coast and all of the interesting animals and people one might encounter while on the mighty trek.

Keeping in line with his first two books, the third book I read was called In a Sunburned Country. This book deals with Bryson's multi-week trip through the massive land mass that is Australia. The author traveled to all of the major tourist destinations, from viewing the Sydney Opera House to the Great Barrier Reef, and everywhere in between. He seems to have traveled at a leisurely pace and a very generous budget.

While reading In a Sunburned Country, you notice how much character Australia has as a whole, and also how quirky it is. Bryson notes several times that Australia has dozens of prized, larger-than-life monuments of random objects. For example, he travels to a giant earth worm museum located in a, you guessed it, enormous earth-worm shaped building. Some might consider this type of monument weird, but it is one of the many unique things that Australia has and takes pride in. If Australia has the largest, most disgusting worm in the world, why not show it off?

Bill Bryson also discusses many times how the country has thousands of animals that are not even discovered yet and do not exist anywhere else in the world. People constantly trek into the jungle or Outback to look for undiscovered animals, and the result is that once in a while an animal that was thought to be extinct thousands of years ago is found. Not only are there rare animals, but there are trees that rival the size of any trees in the world and some of the oldest organisms in the world, that simply look like a gray mush.

One of the constant themes in this book is that the country is much larger than anyone realizes. Cities are spread out here and there, and the large ones are on the coast, but there are small cities of hundreds of thousands of people that are thousands of miles away from any other city. Getting from one city to another may take a day or two, and everywhere in between the two cities is desert with an occasional gas station and bar. The larger cities on the coast have main-stream hotels, restaurants from every culture, and many bars that Bryson utilizes.

The best part of the book in my opinion is when the author visits the Great Barrier Reef with a good friend. He travels to the Reef on a large boat with approximately 400 people and takes part in various water-related activities. There is also talk of a couple who were killed near the Reef several years in the past, and rumors of Jellyfish and sharks that like to nibble on humans, so Bryson is careful the entire time he is near the water.

Overall, In a Sunburned Country is very entertaining and will definitely make you laugh once or twice every chapter. Bill Bryson has a straight-forward, easy-to-understand way of writing and will always leave you wanting to read more. Although the book is a bit long, it is still very entertaining. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5.

Daniel Breedlove is the owner and manager of Corner Office Books, the internet's premier website on business book reviews and sales. For hundreds of reviews of the best business books ever written, visit the website at http://CornerOfficeBooks.com/

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Book Review - Shakespeare

At the start of Shakespeare Bill Bryson apologises for the fact that there is not much to tell. Every aspect of the bard's physical presence on the planet seems to be shrouded in doubt and mystery. We don't even know what he looked like. We don't know much about where he lived, or what he did with his time, apart from write and act. And, though we think we know a reasonable amount about what Will wrote, we know next to nothing about how his works were performed, alongside zero about what role the writer, himself, performed.

So, having apologised for presenting a non-book with a non-story, Bill Bryson proceeds to fill two hundred pages with pure, unadulterated delight. The text provides context, detail and background. It is less than adulatory on the surface, apparently determined to stay within the bounds of the known and the probable. But when Bill Bryson does offer opinion, he reveals a clear and deeply felt love and admiration, almost worship, for his subject.

The book is an absolute joy from beginning to end. Perhaps there really aren't any new facts or figures to discover, but Bill Bryson's account of Shakespeare's life has enough detail, biographical, critical and contextual, to offer as rounded a picture of the writer as we are likely to get. There are numerous Bryson humorous asides, of course, and these only add to the clarity of the piece.
In this slim work, Bryson offers a potted biography, snippets of literary criticism, some illuminating linguistics, much associated history - both of the era and the scholarship, and even a quick guided tour of the pretenders to the myth.

By the end the reader can only marvel at how much an assumed bedrock of national culture and identity could have been laid down by the sedimentation of so little material. But then, of course, there's the works, which speak for themselves.

Philip Spires: Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk

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Book Review - Down Under

It is always interesting to read other people's thoughts about the country you live in. You generally find the things that matter to you the most, are often the things others find least interesting. Or to put it another way, the things you take for granted; those things you live with everyday, and often never give a second thought to unless you have to, are precisely the things others find the most fascinating.

Things like the kangaroo, the platypus, koalas, wombats and echidnas just for starters. Then there are some of the deadliest snakes on the planet, sharks, fresh water crocodiles, funnel-web spiders, box jellyfish, and the blue ringed octopus.

The other pleasure is discovering the wealth of interesting information writers like Bryson, are able to uncover during their research, which they subsequently include in their books.

For example, until I read 'Down Under', I didn't know that the Simpson Desert was named - in 1929 or 1932, depending on the source you choose - after Alfred Simpson, a manufacturer of washing machines. Say, What? Apparently Simpson funded an aerial survey of the area and as a result had the desert named in his honour!

Thanks Bill, I will never look at my aging Simpson washing machine in the same way again.

Good writers also notice strange quirks that locals have long forgotten or simply don't 'see' anymore. Like when Bryson writes:

"Two of the leading explorers of the nineteenth century were called Sturt and Stuart and their names are all over the place, too, so that you constantly have to stop and think, generally at busy intersections where an instant decision is required, 'Now do I want the Sturt Highway or the Stuart Highway?' Since both highways start at Adelaide and finish at places 3,994 kilometres apart, this can make a difference, believe me."

He is right of course. And since I live in Adelaide myself, I must make a mental note of that to ensure I don't end up in Alice Springs the next time I want to drive to Sydney.

I was delighted to find that Bill Bryson and I share a common interest, and that is the habit we both have of buying the local paper of whatever city or community we are passing through. As Bryson says:

"What a comfort it is to find a nation preoccupied by matters of no possible consequence to oneself. I love reading about scandals involving ministers of whom I have never heard, murder hunts in communities whose names sound dusty and remote, features on revered artists and thinkers whose achievements have never reached my ears, whose talents I must take on faith."

One of the things Bill Bryson is noted for is the humour he brings to his writing. He seems to have the ability to see the funny side of a nations many quirks and foibles, and Australia is no different. His description of listening to a cricket match while driving from Sydney to Adelaide, is one of the funniest I have ever read.

I won't try to quote from the book since that would spoil the fun for you, if you are yet to read Down Under yourself. Suffice to say that I had to put the book aside because I was laughing so uncontrollably.

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and after living for many years in Britain with his English wife and four children moved back to America. He is the best selling author of 'The Lost Continent', 'Made in America', 'A Walk in the Woods', and many other great travel books.

If you haven't read Bryson's Down Under you should put it on your reading list now. Despite the fact that it was published in 2000, it has never been out of print, so you will have no trouble finding a copy, either in your local bookshop, online shop of choice, or good secondhand book resellers.

Jim Lesses is a multi-talented Australian whose interests span song writing and recording, movies and travelling, blogging and web site development, and much more. His website, Jim Lesses is the main gateway to many of these interests, while his Compleat Traveller Blog details his many travel experiences.

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