If you've ever read Bryson, you know he can be hilariously funny. You also know he can be crude, rude and inordinately pleased with himself.

Perhaps he's growing up. In this book, his outbreaks of off-color remarks are kept to a minimum while his humor and excellent observational and writing skills are in full force. He travels all over Australia, seeing the sites, relating the history and meeting the people. His description of listening to a cricket match on the radio is one of the funniest bits I've read in a long time.

In short, he convinced me that I'd very much like to visit Australia.