In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson

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Read for the Armchair Traveler’s Reading Challenge.

Only Bill Bryson can make driving through an endless wasteland into an amusing story. I very much enjoyed this book. My prior knowledge of Australia has been pretty much limited to what I’ve seen on Crocodile Hunter episodes and a Lonely Planet podcast on Perth, so it was nice to delve into some more detail.

As always, Bryson injects humor into pretty much any situation he encounters, but he always manages to pack a whole lot of history and natural history into the book. I was also very impressed with his deft handling of his curiosity of the lack of exposure he had to the lives of Australia’s Aboriginal population. (I’m beginning to wonder if someone has actually managed to top the America government’s poor treatment of our Aboriginal population, but I digress.)

An excellent book that I’d recommend to anyone who wants to know a bit more about this amazing continent.