Travelers' Tales Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under

Not only does this collection of essays inspire one to travel to Australia, it inspires one to come back and write about it. The quality of the pieces is top-knotch and the selections hone in on specific and surprising aspects of Australiana. Stories of travellers who spear-fished with Aboriginals and trekked through the desolate Red Centre ignite a sense of adventure and offer appealing travel alternatives. The material is always vivid, clear, and exciting, but is not just a travel brochure. Authors certainly portray the bad with the good (although good usually prevails) and the mixture of sources ensures a good variety of serious, humorous, and romantic styles.

If you are planning a trip to Australia or wish you could, this book should top your reading list. It's not a travel guide, it collects 39 articles or book excerpts from diverse sources that get to the heart of Australia. You hear first-hand accounts of back packers, travel writers (Paul Theroux, Bruce Chatwin), Australians, adventurers, vacationers, and just ordinary people. Such a wide selection lets you see Australia from many angles from the food to the people to the animals and the landscape. This is so much more in-depth than a guidebook could possibly be. Read the harrowing account of a woman canoer who survived a crocodile attack, experience learning to surf at Bondi, ride after brumbies in the Snowy Mountains, etc. Not all stories are heroic, as these are real people writing their impressions of a country and its amazing animals and hardy people. Each gives their own viewpoint which makes for fascinating reading. The selections vary from 5 to 20 pages, making it a great book to dip into when you don't have extended reading time. I highly recommend this book. After living in Australia 3 1/2 years, it brought back many memories of a wonderful country and showed me why I need to travel there again.

This collection of travel writer's accounts of their experiences in the land of kangaroos is amusing and informative. From an explanation of why Aussies call Americans "seppos" (a legacy of the rhyming slang of convicts, seppo means septic tank and tank matches Yank)to adventures in the Outback and quite a lot else, this is just a fun book to read.