A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail | Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail | Bill Bryson | Great read!!

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A Walk in the Wood...

	A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Bill Bryson Anchor, 2006 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 68 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great for all ages

My entire family - adults and teenagers, thoroughly enjoyed this book. We even took us with it when we went back east and my daughter INSISTED that we find a portion of the AT so that we could get a feel for the trail. We found it in PA and walked it for about an hour. Bill, thanks for sharing all of your adventures!

Great read!!

Loved the book. And it reads really fast and funny!! Being a resident and hiker in western NC, I was disappointed that they skipped all of my area, which I think is the best and most beautiful part of the AT that I have seen. But having hiked many pieces of the AT, I surely can relate to his experiences.

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Good but loses steam

Ive not read anything by Bill Bryson before so I had no idea what to expect. I'm one of those who has always wanted to do the AT but from the comfort of my couch so this gave me a flavor of what I was missing! Two middle-aged out of shape men trying to prove to themselves that they're otherwise by trying to go the distance. The pace of the book moved along well with some interesting educational facts thrown in to put things in perspective. However, I felt the ending lacked the same punch the rest of the book had and not because they failed to meet their goal. Seemed like he ran out of things to say. Still, all in all this was an enjoyable read.

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Very funny, insightful and informative

A Walk in the Woods

On a recent trip to my local bookstore, the cover of this bright green paperback caught my attention. Or maybe it was the bear peering out at me. I'm not sure. I'm a frequent hiker myself, and have always dreamed of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, so reading the description for this book immediately peaked my interest.

I was not disappointed. With the book, that is. It was everything the back reviews said it would be--Bryson finds comic wit to expend on every situation. His hiking partner, Katz, had some one-liners that made me laugh out loud, if not cringe a bit at their social meanness. And I appreciated reading the story of a hiker who did not head out into the woods with a Bear Grylls level of fitness and training. Having hiked myself, I know the bone-weariness and utter despair that sometimes can come over you when you've just climbed an impossible hill to discover...another impossible hill. Bryson both loves and hates the woods and the trail and I think that's a pretty honest response to the wilderness. There's nowhere I'd rather ever be than out in the deep, green woods on a cool day. Or even a hot day or the cold, grey-brown of winter. But that doesn't mean the woods don't sometimes feel like they're crushing the life out of you. And, having not been a thru-hiker, I've never even had to do it with a 50-pound pack on!

I also appreciated that the book was sprinkled with short bits relating some of the history or botany of the trail. That is to say, I liked the facts, but sometimes rankled a bit at the preachiness. Bryson goes on at length about the loss of some species of tree, like the famous American chestnut. It's easy to be sad for the loss of the chestnut. One stupid asian fungus and the entire species of tree is wiped out! And while it's unquestionably human error that led to the fungus being transported here and killing off the species, there is an argument for Darwinism to be made here. Humans are not the only creatures who transport pollen, seeds, microbes, etc. from one part of the world to another. Birds do this, hurricanes do it, tsunamis certainly do it, even volcanic eruptions can cause massive shifts in atmospheric streams, raining foreign particles onto lands. In other words, if one tiny fungus was all it took to knock out an entire species, then that species, possibly, was just not strong enough to survive the brutality of the natural world. It was too cloistered for too long, and when it died off, it made room in the forests for hardier trees that could withstand the punishment. This is the way of it. In other words, had humans stepped in and genetically altered the chestnut or found a way to spray it with something that protected it from the fungus--well, what is really the unnatural occurrence here? What newer, cooler tree did we possibly prevent from evolving because we prodded the chestnut along beyond its natural lifespan? I mean, that's not to say that letting the tree die off was the "correct" course either. The point is there are arguments for right and wrong on both sides, so couching the "facts" that Bryson presents with such an air of superiority turned me off a bit from that aspect of the book.

The only other part that I found a tiny bit disappointing is that he doesn't, in fact, wind up hiking the trail. In fact, he only does about a third of it. Walking 800+ miles in one summer is no small feat, but I was kind of routing for him to really get out there and conquer the path.

In the end, I wound up finishing this book in two days. For a story about one, long walk through the woods, it's never once boring or repetitive. There is always a new interesting anecdote or, even better, funny character that Bryson meets along the way. This is a must-read for anyone who loves to hike, or thinks they may. One thing is for sure, reading it makes me want to hoist on my pack and head out for the nearest woods I can find.

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fun and informative

This book starts off on a very humorous note, but runs the gamut from serious travelougue to real, scary adventure. The narrative of the author's attempt to walk the whole Appalachian trail in a summer are interspersed with good information of the history and geology of the trail and the towns near it. It includes the nitty gritty details of how he chose his camping equipment and the pleasures of a hot shower after a long stretch on the trail, and a near disaster when his hiking partner leaves the trail. The personal side of his relationship with his walking partner is particularly touching at the end. I good light read.

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