Independent Reading Post #2: Succeeding Captain Cook (Prompt 1, Ch 3-4)

This section of the book was unique because not only was it Bryson's first experience in one of Australia's more populated regions, but it also gave a good overview of the origins of residential Australia and Sydney.

When I first began reading this section of the book, it was full of information of the history of Australia and I immediately thought that the next thirty pages were going to seem extremely long and boring. However, the section quickly picked up, and I began to like it for several reasons:

1) Bryson's writing style makes the book much more upbeat and comical. Not very many authors can turn the history of Australia and the voyage of Captain James Cook into entertaining reading material. For example, after telling about how French captain Jean-Francois de La Perouse arrived on the Austalian continent, only to find that the British had already established a prison there, Bryson adds, "La Perouse's expression when it was explained to him that Phillip and his crew had just sailed fifteen thousand miles to establish a prison for people who had stolen lace and ribbons, some cucumber plants, and a book on Tobago must have been one of the great looks in history, but alas there is no record of it" (Bryson, 49). Through occasional clever remarks such as this one, Bryson makes a topic as dry as the voyage of Cook's Endeavor bearable to read about.

2) The fact that Bryson even takes the time to explain the origins of Australia's residential areas is admirable because it equips the reader with knowledge that makes Bryson's traveling experiences more significant. Also, in the beginning of the book, Bryson mentions that Americans know shockingly little about Australia due to its virtual absence in our headlines. By incorporating some basic knowledge of Australia's history into his bestselling novel, Bryson is certainly doing his part in combatting our ignorance toward another nation, which I think is definitely admirable.

3) Bryson's interest in his travels and admiration for the Australian society is clearly evident in his writing. He frequently talks about his amazement at the society that was built on a continent that began as just a prison, his interest in how the Aboriginee people live, and his willingness to learn about every destination he visits.

4) Bryson's description of his paranoia over the multitude of uniquely Australian insects and creatures is hilarious and is definitely my favorite part of the book so far. When Bryson first arrives in Sydney, he studies every variety of poisonous spider and snake that inhabit the area, and after beginning to take detailed notes on their anatomical features, he says "it occurred to me that if I were to awake to find any large, furry creature advancing crablike across the sheets, I was unlikely to note any of its anatomical features, however singular and telling. So I put away my notebook and went off to look at minerals, which aren't so exciting but do have the compensating virtue that almost never will they attack you" (59).

There weren't very many aspects of this section that I didn't like, but if I had to pick something to change, I would have broken up the account of Cook's voyage into smaller sections instead of taking a ten plus page hiatus from Bryson's travels to tell inform the reader about Cook. Overall, I really enjoyed this section and look forward to writing about Bryson's continued adventures in Sydney.