Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0-7679-0386-2 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 15 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (294 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Must read for all travelers
Comment: I bought this book in England, at the airport, for something to read on the way home. Having traveled to Australia a few years ago, I thought it would be nice to read someone else's impressions of the country. I loved it! Some parts had me laughing out loud so hard I was crying (which I am sure the flight attendants thought strange) while insights about the treatment of the Aborigines inspired some serious reflection. This is not a 'how-to' guide for planning a trip to Oz, but it is wonderful at giving gut reactions, background information and history, as well as the pure, honest emotions involved in traveling somewhere far from home. So, after talking to your travel agent and reading Fodor's or Lonely Planet's guides... read Bryson before boarding the plane. And if you fly into Sydney, you will know more than the locals about Kingston Smith, for whom the airport is named! Even if you aren't bound for Down Under, Bryson can transport you through the sights, sounds, and conversations that he reports so well.
Rating: 5
Summary: Bryson Finds Love at Last
Comment: For most Americans - and probably for most Europeans, too - Australia is a big, roughly circular blank spot on the map. For us, it's an easy-to-defend territory in Risk, and the source of many a bad Down Under joke - a country that's gone to another planet, but occasionally sends back bands and boomerangs.
Bill Bryson doesn't see Australia like that. Strange to say - *very* strange, if you've read his other travel books - Bryson actually seems to like, even love, Australia. He certainly relishes traveling through it and revels in the odd little facts he unearths. This makes for a touching travel book rather different than his previous works.
In a Sunburned Country is actually extremely different than, for example, A Walk in the Woods. The primary focus of Walk was the humor and the experiences, not the Applachian Trail, and certainly not America or Americans. In Sunburned, Bryson has produced a much more straightforward travelogue more concerned with little museums and cheap hotels than with the inside of his own head. It's still funny, of course, and it's still got a lot of Bryson in it - his reactions to the museums (he loved every one of 'em), his reactions to the hotels (if you're going to Darwin, better check out this book first), and his inexplicable ability to find danger and injury in places where other people are fine (the dogs in the park, petrol in the outback).
This is by no means an in-depth exploration of Australia; in fact, it could be subtitled "Australia: Only the Good Parts." Bryson just gives hints about the darker side of modern Australians (a man in a train who says that all Aborogines should be hanged), then hastily retreats to another museum. It's as though he's reluctant to let his fantasy of Perfect Australia be tainted.
However, it's engrossing both as armchair travel and as humor, and that, as we all know, is a perfect combination. And if the government of Australia owes Bryson a hearty thank-you for this book, so what?
(One last note: he's done a book and a half with Stephen Katz, who is in his own way delightful. But if Bryson has any sense at all, he'll take Alan Sherwin along on his next book trip. Bryson is always better with a companion, a foil, and Sherwin is perfect for that. In addition, Sherwin doesn't appear to hold a grudge, which is essential for someone who is traveling with Bryson. In Sunburned, many of the funniest and best bits involve Sherwin, even though he's in less than a fifth of book.)
Rating: 2
Summary: Funny but sloppy with the facts
Comment: Bryson is as funny and as lively as ever. Laugh-out-loud funny. But this is one of the few books I've ever quit before finishing. Bryson makes too many factual mistakes and mis-shadings of his subjects. He clearly tried to assimilate too much material too fast as a writer when he was travelling; the result is bad history and bad journalism, though good comedy. Nothing I spotted was consequential by itself, but by the third little error in 30 pages -- and who knows what else I didn't spot - I figured I might end up mistaken about Australia when I get there myself if I kept reading. Read this book if you want to smile, not if you want to learn and get things right. Think of reading this book like watching a sitcom about Australia; you'll laugh and pick up a few things, but never forget it's just entertainment.
 |
Title: A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767902521 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767908171 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
 |
Title: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson ISBN: 076790382X Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0380727501 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0060920084 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 12 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
