Pre-holiday read: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
I have a trip coming up to Australia. As luck would have it, just a few days ago, I came across In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson in a Ryan Holiday newsletter. This was Holiday’s pitch:
You can’t write about travel books without mentioning Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburned Country is not only one of the greatest travel books ever written, but it’s also the funniest. And I just love Australia so much. […] Bryson captures the vastness of Australia, the absurdity of it, the beauty of it…and of course, what the distance of it–how far it is from the rest of the West–and what that perspective gives you. My favorite passage in this book (which was particularly beneficial being there in the runup to the 2024 election) is worth reading in its entirety. “It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with local paper,” he writes, “I personally can think of nothing more exciting, certainly nothing you could do in a public place with a cup of coffee than to read newspapers from a part of the world you know almost nothing about. 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.”
Somehow that sold me and I borrowed the audiobook narrated by Bryson himself. Still early in my listening, but I’m already enjoying his travelogue. I’m excited to see what else I can find out about Australia to give me some context before my trip!