Rating: 
Summary: For an amateur hiker, this is a treat!
Review: This hiking book, when it first came out, was so funny as he describes how he and his friend maneuver around to get on the Appalachian Trail at intervals, not try to cover the entire thing. He endures the great outdoors at much travail and worry of bears entering his tent at night. They once did see a bear, but it was not a huge or overactive (so-called dangerous) animal.
He gives entertaining and amusing anecdotes about falling in the water and of the deplorable amenities at the campgounds near the Great Smoky Mountains (where they get a cab into Knoxville, and rent a car to go on up into the West Virginia hills to resume the 'hike'). He yearns for a comfortable bed at night and good-tasting food. This prompted me to write to him about traversing the Natchez Trace through Middle Tennessee where such is not only available but plentiful.
This was definitely a feel-good book, one to make you laugh with (not at) Bill Bryson and his fellow hiker-friend. He's a good writer and should stick to this type of endeavor.
Rating: 
Summary: One word: Katz
Review: I love Bryson, as well as nearly everything he writes. But his erstwhile hiking companion, klutzy, overweight, out-of-shape, pragmatic Katz steals the show in this book about a couple of neophytes attempting to hike the spectacular and challenging Appalachian Trail. You'll never look at Little Debbie's treats again without thinking of Bryson, but most of all of Katz.
Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars: the last 75 pages could have been scratched. Once the non-dynamic duo left the Trail, I lost interest.
Rating: 
Summary: What I think
Review: The book that I am going to review is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It is a non-fiction book based on Bill Bryson's real life experience. The whole book is about his experience and how he travels the Application Trail with his good friend Katz. My impression of the book was wow. I felt sorry for him because he has to deal with his friend Katz, though out the book his friend is constantly stopping for breaks every five minutes and he always complains. In the book Bill and Katz go in to a small town where Katz meets a girl at the local laundry mat and later on that day they find out that she is married and her husband doesn't like the it when Katz is hitting on her. So they spend the night at a hotel and lock the door and but the desk in front of the door so no one could get in. Though out the book Bill uses very good imagery, I think because he is writing about his own experience. Here is a good example from the book that shows good imagery, "Even a scattering moose lethally deranged by a plastic worm that burrows a nest in their brains and befuddle them into glacial lakes (Bill Bryson)." When I read that sentence it put a picture in my mind of a moose running around like a chicken with its head cut off it really grabs my attention. The audience that this book is directed to is a mature audience. I think that because in the book he talks about things that young people really would not understand, like when he talks about what the menstruation period that girls have to go though. And he also swears a lot in the book and uses crude humor. My reaction to the book is I know what he is going though. I can connect to him in the way that I have been hiking before. I know what a heavy back can feel like on your back when you are hiking. And I am an avid outdoorsmen that is why I can connect to what he is going through. But I think that the plot is not very good, it jumps around to much from where Bill and Katz stop and then it skips a day or two and then picks up there. The plot, I think needed to be more thought out and should not skip around as much, it was to confusing. But over all I think that the book was over a good book, the ending was good, it came to a close and did not leave anything out. This book also teaches the reader a lesson, and that lesson it to try. "We didn't walk 2,200 miles, its true, but here's the thing; we tried." And when I read that it reminded me of the things I do and even though sometimes I do not make it I try.
Rating:
Summary: A Laugh in the Woods, even without a great story.
Review: A Walk in the Woods was a feel good read that's not a really strong story, but tells you more about the Appalachian Trail and the wilderness you could ever want to know. The best part of this novel was the author, Bill Bryson's relationship with his hiking buddy and old friend, Katz. After reading that Katz, a middle aged out of shape recovering alcoholic, hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail, I sincerely feel I can too. However, my favorite parts of the book were the weird characters that they encounter on their journey. I would have loved to read more about the neurotic hiker, Mary Ellen. She was single handedly the funniest part of the book, and I wish she had a bigger role in the book (even though this would be impossible since it's a true story, and since Mary Ellen left to go home, Bryson couldn't have written fiction better than truth). I found the facts about different animals and the forest ranger service surprisingly incredibly interesting. It made me feel like saving the flying squirrels or allocating funds to help preserve the wilderness. Although I enjoyed the book, I felt it was lacking in the ending. Towards the end of the book, Bryson hikes on his own and the story definitely needs the two hiking characters together. When you have really good chemistry with two characters, and you take one away, the writing clearly suffers. The very ending was also too open ended. I feel that Bryson didn't expand enough, and with a different ending, the book could really be up to the caliber it should be. Even with the ending, it's still a terrific quick read that'll make the people around you think you're very strange when you're laughing out loud at the characters in this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Definetely worth reading...
Review: I just finished this, and having read a number of Bill Bryson's other works, I'd rate this on the high end, because in addition to a fabulous recollection of his hiking, he includes additional research on the history of the Appalacian Trail and other noteworthy places. The only criticism I have is that at certain sections, it does become a trifle boring when he really gets into a detailed analysis on the exact percentage of forest land in certain states, for instance.
Rating:
Summary: Is Katz a fictional character?
Review: Some extremely funny moments. But while Bryson is all in favor of environmentalism in theory, he doesn't actually like being in the woods very much. His self-involved intellectual slapstick works best in the company of those who see their task in life as frustrating or annoying him. He's a kind of George Burns to the world's Gracie Allen, the latest in a long line of comedians who start as rational, hopeful people and wind up tearing their hair at the absurdity that assails them. The bits describing what happens between meetings with strangers -- that is, the actual walking of the trail -- are perfunctory.Bryson's ex-buddy Katz returns from "Neither Here Nor There" though I wonder if there's any real person corresponding to him. I suspect he's just a literary device. He's everything Bryson is -- sarcastic, out of shape, an inexperienced hiker -- only more so. He's an exaggerated version of Bryson himself, making him a good comic foil. One worrisome trend is that Bryson describes himself actually saying mean things to people instead of impotently thinking mean thoughts about them, as he did in earlier books. Is success making him arrogant? The tone is wildly uneven. The set piece descriptions of the trail are interesting in a National Geographic sort of way, but are conventional in the way in the way his humorous passages never are. His attempts at nature description are flat and seem merely dutiful -- the sort of thing one has to do when writing this sort of book. His use of British colloquialisms sometimes seems affected. His discussions of public policy are trite and sometimes self-contradictory, giving the impression of having been dashed off at an editor's insistence while the book was already in proofs. Those bits account for about 2/5 of the book. The other 3/5 is vintage Bryson -- which is why I give the book 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Clinic in Writing Humor
Review: If you're an aspiring humor writer, this is your book. Bryson adroitly employs irony, conflict, hyperbole, and his own special "curmudgeon factor" as he chronicles his quest to conquer the Appalachian Trail. In prose that's even more assured than his classic The Lost Continent, Bryson shows the absurdity of spending thousands of dollars on high-tech hiking equipment as he "gets back to nature." The book is well deserved of all the accolades it received when it came out.
Rating:
Summary: LAUGH FREE OR DIE
Review: Bill Bryson fills this book with more humor than the Sunday funnies, without ever failing to note any and every detail about the glorious pasttime of our country- the Appalachian Trail. As Bryson notes, the motto of his state is "Live free or die," and as I have noted in my title, this book deserves a name somewhat along the same lines. You will find yourself laughing in a fashion you never thought possible. And if you find yourself reading in public, as you probably will, you may have to answer (no, you WILL have to answer) the many people who ask you why on earth you are laughing so hard. A must-read, especially if you have some Snickers handy.
Rating:
Summary: Funny
Review: This is quite possibly the funniest book I have ever read. Bryson's opening chapters covering his fear of bears had me laughing so hard, that I actually cried. A must read for not just a great laugh, but an imapssioned exploration of our country's natural wonder. When I read it, I often find myself moved to hit the local trails for my own walks in the woods.
Rating:
Summary: I'd Give It 10 Stars If They Let Me
Review: I was first introduced to Bill Bryson by my Sister In Law who lives in England. We were visiting her over there and she gave me "Neither Here Nor There" to take with me on the plane back from England. I laughed until my head hurt. So I couldn't wait to get to this one when it came out. I wasn't disappointed. He does go on a bit of a political and environmental rant, but you must admit, some of the things he's ranting about are worth a rant. I imagine, over the years, I've read A Walk In The Woods" four or five times, and enjoy it just as much every time.
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