In A Sunburned Country
Bill Bryson



Read August 2008
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, Mounds View branch
Essay written Sunday, August 24th, 2008

I do like me some Bill Bryson. For the most part. That book I'm A Stranger Here Myself was so awful for the first three or so chapters that I couldn't continue. I've written all about it here. Dave Barry formula yuckiness.

This was as good as his other travel writing. It's hard to tell if Australia is really such an awe-inspiring place or if Bryson just makes every travel destination seem that way because his writing is filled with such wonder and joy. I recently watched a Pilot Guides (Globe Trekker) DVD on Australia and that didn't make Down Under seem like a wonderful place to visit at all.

No matter. I enjoyed the living daylights out of In A Sunburned Country, and that's all that counts. Very few authors leave me sad to approach the end of their books, but Bryson does. Usually my attention span has long since been exceeded and I count the remaining pages with vigor. I want Bryson books to continue indefinitely. Unfortunately I think I've reached the end of his travel books and may be forced to start over from the beginning now. Can do.

Also, this is the first book I've ever checked out and read from the Mounds View branch of the Ramsey County Public Library. I had been to the MV branch a couple of times, but it was always with someone else and I didn't have the time to explore it. This time I did. Not that there's much to explore.

I live in far eastern Ramsey County. Mounds View is on the far western extreme of Ramsey County. The Rams (as nobody calls it) is the smallest county in Minnesota, but nevertheless Mounds View might as well be the moon to me. I never get over there. I rarely get anywhere. So the library has been, for my fifteen years in the area, little more than a remote outpost.

Anyway, now I can not only say I've been there, but also that I've checked out books from there and read them. Also, they have a darn hot librarian. Books aren't the only things worth checking out at Mounds View.

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