Brysons Brilliant Best (Down Under - Bill Bryson)

Member Name: pania22

Product:	Down Under - Bill Bryson
Date:	24/07/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly amusing, Interesting and unputdownable. :o)

Disadvantages: Potential for laugh out loud embarrasment. unputdownable.

Bill Bryson used to be my neighbour. He did y'know! well, he used to live about 2 miles away. And I met him on many occasions! I did to! well, he shopped in waitrose and so I stalked him and I swear he walked past me holding his hand to the side of his face and muttering something like "bloody woman" under his breath. Anyway I digress, this was supposed to be a book review, not a review of my celebrity obsessive stalkerish tendancies.

I first came across Bill Bryson when my dad started to read his books many years ago. As you couldn't fail to be aware if you have been awake for the last 12 literary years, Brysons written genre is in Travel. Basically he travels the world and, erm, "appraises" for want of a better word, the places that he visits. Without any shadow of a doubt he is hilarious. Brysons writing style is one of such intense observation and witicism that it never fails to amaze. But that observation extends much further than "Australia is lovely with lots of sheep, very hot and lots of places to get lost" aka the usual Australia review, to as far as "Australia somehow manages to loose its presidents without trace, has the ability to make you cease to be for an entire 24 hour period whilst travelling there and has the highest amount of things that can kill you in a very nasty way, oh and the coffee shop at the end of the street is fantastic, try it!". Bryson is dry, searching and frequently laugh out loud funny.

Down under is, as the name suggests, a book about Australia. Funny that. Starting with a whistlestop tour of Sydney before proceeding across the country city by city (if you call an australian sprawling metropolis a city I've no idea) by means of the curiously named "indian state" railway line. Throughout his travels Bryson points out to us elements of Australian culture and history in a manner that keeps us entirely hooked throughout. indeed i found myself eagerly awaiting the next australian fact that could not be found in any encyclopedia/wikipedia/google search anywhere, ever. Infact where Bryson gets these facts himself I have absolutely no idea. He either spends the entirity of his non travelling time buried in the archives of various embassies reading 200 years worth of microfische spools or has an exceptionally active imagination and most of the facts are in fact fiction. All i know is that he presents these facts in such an amusing manner I have frequently produced loud and pig like snorts of laughter in the middle of a silent and packed rest room, leading my colleagues to asume i am madder than they already think.

I purchased my copy of this book new, from the waterstones website. and it set me back an entire 599 pennies. The printed price is £8.99 so I gained a massive discount in going against my personal grain of not purchasing on line. Amazon has copies of this book from 2p second hand and in a used condition

In short. You won't be disppointed with this book. Even if travel literature isnt necessarily your bag, give it a go. I guarantee you will read this book cover to cover in 2 days flat. Bryson at his finest.

Other titles by Bryson include "Notes from a big country", a selection of editions of a newspaper column written by Bryson in america and most certainly his funniest book to date.
"Notes from a small island" detailing Brysons younger aged tours around our lovely country of the UK. Again highly recommended.

...And many more

Summary: one of the funniest books I have read in a very long time