In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

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Audiobook.  What a fun book to listen to!  It was such a treat to hear Bryson reading his book, telling of his enthusiasm for Australia as he recounts his extended visits.  He is of course very funny, giving us such important phrases as, "mad as cut snakes," meaning crazy, a description he uses to describe people in Queensland.  And he has the anecdotes to prove it. 

At every turn he has another lethal animal to be worried about; the most lethal being in the world, the box jellyfish (Portuguese Man o' War), the sharks, the 12 kinds of very poisonous snakes, the crocodiles (apparently faster and more worrisome than the alligators in this country), the spiders.  Sometimes he finds he must recount the horror story twice (the young couple left by the cruise boat on the barrier reef, 30 miles from shore).  And sometimes he is just funny (the Prime Minister, who in 1967 vanished when he went for a dip in the ocean, went for "the swim that needs no towel."  

His enthusiasm for many sights, the Great Barrier Reef, the harbor bridge in Sydney and Uluru (Ayres Rock) was genuine.

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