A very entertaining tour of Australia. I love Bill Bryson's sense of humor. Makes me want to go to Australia ... on second thought, maybe not. Bryson devotes many pages to describing all sorts of deadly and/or pain inducing fauna and flora in great detail. ( )

Good Ol' Aussie Sense Of Hunor: Bryson really captures the essence of Australia by detailing his experiences and interactions in different places throughout the country. Using humor or strange conversations, he conveys the attitude and friendly personalities of the the Aussies. While spending long passages describing too many historical details that he might only find interesting, he dives deep into the culture and history of a country most people know nothing about. Seeing as I just moved here, this introduction was perfect to welcoming me here. :)

As a caveat, I have a disclaimer to make on this one, in that I am an expat American, and have been here for (at the time of this writing ) about 3 years now, so I have had a big advantage in exposure to Australian than Bill has. I wished I would have had the book before going through Young, as I would have had to try finding the pet food/porn s tore -Young NSW is basically one street with shops out in the middle of nowhere (well ok, in the same manner that Dorothy's place in Kansas wasn't near anything - to anyone but Dorothy)...

He did miss some nice stories that I am sure he could have used ( for example, Benalla Victoria has a plaque in front of an old saddler's shop where Ned Kelly was apprehended by the law (Benalla is not far from Glen Rowan)... by the law enforcement officer securing Mr Kelly's -well, how do you say it politely ? I suppose the best way is to call it a place where a male can be incapacitated.

Bill also makes the drive from Adelaide to Melbourne seem like breeze ... and you sort of lose sight of just how vast a continent Australia really is (but I suppose that is because most people don't do road trips here). It is something over 10 or 11 hours if I've been told accurately (and it only looks a couple of inches away on a map -go figure).

One particular (for me) poignant part is where Bill describes the area where his friends lived outside of Melbourne, of which I am pretty sure was dead center in last year's horrific bushfires that tore through Victoria. I don't know that he touched on the significance of fires as they are to the Australian landscape; they are every bit a part of this country as tornado alley is to the middle part of the US (another place where I used to live).

There are so many things that one can write about Australia; Bryson's book is great, it is cheeky, and there are even times where you can tell he still has a holiday visit mentality... I started reading this book before I left the US; but really it held so much more relevance after travelling around here. You know one of the things I've heard is that people visiting Oz expect that they'll find Kangaroos hopping down the streets- and the irony is, I actually did, and it obeyed a yield sign and then hung a right before bouncing into the bush ... go figure.

The first thing that I would suggest to readers and potential readers -is to divorce any preconceived notions related to Crocodile Dundee, and Steve Irwin; this place is as complex as it is vast. ( )

This was yet another highly enjoyable example of Bryson's travel writing. I learned all kinds of interesting details about Australia, especially in places I had not heard of and would probably not think to visit should I ever get the chance to go 'down under.' A good dose of history and politics where appropriate are thrown in too which I liked. One example being all the failed attempts to cross much of the interior deserts. Great little volume that I look forward to reading again in the future. ( )

Very good, but not as funny as "Notes from..." Several laugh out loud parts, though. Had a lot of good history and information about Australia. Could have done without the emphasis on evolution. ( )