Post-Graduation Explorations

One book down, twelve more to go!

I confess, when I was researching books about Australia to build my booklist I wasn’t sure if I should include this book. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy Bill Bryson (especially his books on language!), but I wasn’t sure if including a book about traveling around Australia was the best choice for a book to help prepare me to move there. I finally decided that, though this is most definitely a travel book, it would serve as a resource of what I might expect to experience Australia (and Australians) as an American.

Now, in hind-sight, I’m really glad I decided to kick off my reading list with this book! Not only did I pick up some tips on what to see and where to go, but I also learned that I’ve willingly agreed to move to a DEATH TRAP! Since not even the discovery channel was noble enough to be so forthright about the Ciguatera (a deadly disease infecting Snapper fish in the north), Box Jelly Fish (found near the Great Barrier Reef, so poisonous that people are known to continue screaming and writhing, even after they have been knocked out with Morphine), and the Taipan (the most poisonous snake in the world) I highly doubt any of the other, more scientifically minded books, on my book list would be either. So I thank Bill Bryson, and my ingenious decision to begin my reading with his book In A Sunburned Country, for giving me the opportunity to freak out about it now, and continue my preparations with a better sense of resignation about what the hell I’m getting myself in to.

If you missed my post about the book list, check it out here!