In a Sunburned Country

There's a book called In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson and it was published probably 25 years ago. And it's kind of a travel memoir about his time in Australia. It's a great book. It's very funny.

And that book contributed to my impression of Australia as a rugged place with rugged and sort of eccentric people. Where you've got giant spiders and snakes and all this, like everything wants to kill you all the time.

I read a book a few years ago by an author by the name of Bill Bryson, excellent author, excellent book. It was called In a Sunburned Country and it was all about Bryson's adventure down under in Australia.

In the hilarious book, In a Sunburned Country, and you can grab a copy at the painted porch. It's wonderful.

It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with the 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.

I loved the book. We started carrying it at the painting board. It's one of my favorites.