Rating: 
Summary: How does that work?
Review: As an outdoors person I kept waiting for the triumph, the agony and the glory. Well it wasn't there. I am disappointed by a book about hiking the AT by someone who never hiked the AT. There was some nice background but that all came from research done in the library on on the net. After spending my life in the outdoors I have encountered plenty of humor but very little on this trip.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, Though Slow Toward the End
Review: This book gets off to a wonderful start. You'll blast through the first 100 pages. After that though, the particular anecdote doesn't pique your interest, it can be hard going.
Rating: 
Summary: A Walk in th Woods/by BillBryson
Review: He starts his book in New Hampshire where he discovers a sign that states Appalachian Mountains. These mountains extend from Maine to Georgia. It covers 14 states and brings a great surprise to all who did not know that Appalchians covered so much territory. (It reminds me of finding out about the head waters of the Missouri River starting in the state of Montana.)
The book has a few laughs,tell a few facts,and pulls you in.
The book should be titled "A stroll in the woods" not a walk,since it does not go far on the Appalachian Trail nor does it go far enough in showing the riches or vast array of life that exists there.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: This book reads like the author was assigned by his boss to write about the trail. The unoriginal ... jokes about his chubby friend and carrying everything but the kitchen sink in his backpack are mildly humorous at first, then just get tedious after repeating them ad nauseum. To complete his 'assignment' he adds in filler in the form of factual/historical dialog that reads as if it were taken straight from park brochures.I was really disappointed in this book, considering the acclaim it has received.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough material for a book
Review: For the first 40 pages or so, I was laughing out loud and thinking I'd found a new favorite writer. As Bryson is planning the trip and buying equipment, he's hilarious. The book starts to sag not long after he and his hiking companion Katz hit the trail, but it still held my interest for a while. It wasn't until page 103, when he's describing the town of Gatlinburg and quoting from one of his own, earlier books, that I started to sense this book was heading for trouble. There just isn't much going on here. They soon give up the trail and Bryson is determined to hike portions of it alone. He drives through Pennsylvania, thinking he'll do a few hikes but his heart doesn't seem to be in it. He ends up in Centralia, where coal mine fires forced everyone to abandon the town. This is an important and fascinating story, but doesn't belong in this book. Centralia is not on the AT but that didn't seem to matter. He was in his car and could go anywhere if it might fill a few pages. And fill pages is what he seemed to be trying to do. Next he goes home to New Hampshire and takes a series of day hikes that aren't even worth mentioning. I started to wonder why he bothered writing a book when he didn't have enough material to fill it. In my imagination I kept seeing two words, book contract, flashing in neon letters. I kept imagining the author facing a blank sheet of paper and going out on yet another day hike looking for a story to fill out a few more pages. When the agony of the writing process comes through on the page, reading is no longer a pleasure. This is all the sadder because it's clear that he is a talented and funny writer, and this could have been a great book. The sections where he gives background information such as the history of the Appalachian Trail, and how the original vision was not fulfilled are quite good. And the last part of the book, when he and Katz hike the end of the AT in Maine (when something finally happens) actually makes the middle part of the book worth slogging through. It is both funny and poignant. If only more of the book could have been like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I have read this book through SEVEN times and I still laugh my head off at the antics of Bill and his friend as they hike the trail.It is a excellent book that I plan to carry and read again on the trail when I hike it in 2004. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to everyone. Whether planning to hike the trail or not. I would not recommend it as reading for young children as there is some cussing in it.
Rating:
Summary: No pain no gain
Review: After reading most of Bryson's books I think I like this one the least because it's not as gut busting funny as the others but thats because it's different. ViVa la difference!
I love that of all the people Bryson takes with him on this trip is his old buddy Katz. I felt like the fly on the wall during their conversations with themselves and others.
Meeting up with that woman Mary Ellen was too funny and Katz's remarks in her direction were a gas.
I enjoyed the background info he added to their nature "road trip".
They treat the AT like it was route 66.
I was surprised to read about the seeming underbelly of the Nation that is the Forest Service.
Being from PA, I was intriqued by his lack of good comments on my state but then again in my travels I have had similar experiences. You just keep going.
When they got seperated I honestly wondered if they'd ever find each other again. I had to resist reading ahead!!!
Account of this book I want to visit Centralia and see it for myself. There is no danger of me hiking the AT but for the time it took for me to read the book, the thought sure crossed my mind.
Rating:
Summary: Hiking??
Review: Having only recently finished this book, the antagonism it bought me is still fresh in my mind. A hiker myself, I was a little surprised at the whole 'eating in restaurants and sleeping hotels' thing...its one thing to go hiking, its another to stop in for a bit of 3 star luxury every week or so. And he calls himself a hiker.
The incessant paragraphs/half chapters about the ins and outs of the trail's history, nature and scientific breakdown drove me up the wall. If I wanted to know about the flora and fauna of the Appalachian Trail and the greater part of North America I would have purchased a book on the subject. I found myself thinking that if the actual trail-log parts were the only parts to be published (and I must say they WERE well written and DID bring a laugh), it would amount to about 50 pages and could have been read in a few hours rather than days.
All in all, the sarcasm and humour were well written, but it was a somewhat frustrating piece of reading.
Rating:
Summary: Appalachian Trail Lite
Review: This is an outstanding, often hilarious book about the author's attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail in 1996. He pokes fun at the folks he meets, at himself, and especially at his backpacking companion. The scenes he describes with Katz are great, some of the funniest moments in the book. The image of Katz trying to pack and then putting on his oversized backpack for the first time with misc. things dangling from it, was laugh-out-loud funny. Their misadventures only escalate from there. Bryson lived in England for 20 years and I think this is why he's such a successful humorist - he has that classic (often smug) "British wit" down pat. Balanced with the humor are more serious moments, where Bryson relates a great deal of history about the Appalachian Trail. Obviously he performed a great deal of research for these sections of the book. The end result is that his travels are steeped in history as he melds facts together in an engaging way. More sobering are numerous concerns he raises about the ecology and the damage we have already inflicted onto our environment. The natural wonders of the Appalachian Trail still remain under serious threat - no thanks to the sometimes-negligent, often-harmful actions of the National Park Service and the USDA Forest Service. One thing I wish I had known beforehand: Bryson only walked a little over a third of the 2100+ mile Appalachian Trail and this isn't really mentioned in the glowing editorial reviews or synopsis on the back cover. I was in a little bit of disbelief at first when Bryson and Katz, after completing their first significant leg of the Trail, casually decide to skip to Virginia because they aren't enjoying themselves quite so much in Tennessee. The trip breaks down soon after and sort of becomes a "Highlights" or "Best of" the AT - Bryson visits much of the intermediate and northern half of the Trail on day-hikes or short, sporadic overnight treks. This seems to have raised a lot of discontent among many die-hard AT fans and true thruhikers who know the Trail intimately. Indeed, the AT has its own unique counterculture and camaraderie among thruhikers and Bryson mentions surprisingly little about this - perhaps in all his erratic day-trips and skipping around, he somehow managed to miss it. This is a shame, because I would have enjoyed Bryson's humorous input on this aspect of the AT. The anecdotes, history, and concerns meld together, creating one of the best books I've read in the past year. I forced this book onto many of my friends and colleagues, a varied collection of people who thoroughly enjoyed it, only a few of them serious backpackers. I recommend it highly and think that it has great appeal to a wide audience. It's an excellent starting point for those who don't know much about the AT but want to learn more (there is a healthy-sized bibliography included in the back). For those wanting an equally humorous but more introspective and complete look at the experience of walking the Appalachian Trail, I would recommend Robert Alden Rubin's "On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage."
Rating:
Summary: A Walk in the Woods
Review: This book tickled me with its zany humor and bingo imagery. I laughed out loud on several occasions. I have been a wilderness hiker for many years and know how weird you can get in the wild. I was amused by Bryson's characterizations of hikers and especially his self-preservational fears of wild animals. It is very unusual, as we find out in this volume, to encounter threatening wildlife in the lower 48. And Bryson's sensitive research on the diminution of our native species is compelling from an environmental standpoint. The chopped up nature of the hiking is distracting at times and seems contrived to allow a greater portion of the trail some commentary. However, the stories of Harper's Ferry and certain Pennsylvania small towns are compelling. And his attraction to the trail is understandable even though he cannot hike the entire distance. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed his portrayal of the trip and his relationship with the wacky Katz. While I can't buy the characterization of a 'rediscovering of America' I did appreciate his observations on the lack of beauty in commercial development and the fact that you have to drive to a specified site to find beauty in a country that is inherently spectacular. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the crowded town of North Conway is a stone's throw from the magnificent Presidential Range. And yet there are only a relative handful of hikers on the trails. He fails to convey if he would like to see more people in the wilderness. This book is s gem with vivid images that will amuse the armchair traveler and hiker alike.
| 
