A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

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: A Good Read for Someone with Experience
Review: I read the book before I started backpacking and used Bryson's descriptions for making my decision on where to tackle a section of the AT. I went back later on to read it again, and enjoyed it more the second time. If you have gone through the same sorts of experiences on the AT, met similar people, been in the same areas, and delt with the same problems, its an excellent read. Granted it slows down in part two, but if you're interested in some history and background of the AT it doesn't matter. Part one a must read for those who would like a taste of the AT. Bryson is honest and at times very hilarious about his experiences and lack of skill. You should not read it if backpacking or the Appalachian Trail is of no interest to you.

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Summary: Experiencing a very special part of America
Review: Subtitled, "Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail", the author, Bill Bryson, brings the reader along with him, a novice hiker, who, at the age of 44, has just returned to the United States after 20 years in England. He's been a journalist for British publications and has written several travel memoirs. Now it was time to experience a part of the America he left behind by hiking this famous trail.

The Appalachian Trail consists of 2,100 rugged miles along the east coast and passes through 14 states from Georgia to Maine, built with the labor from public works in the 1930s. It has been re-routed slightly over the years and has never achieved the ideal which included many comfortable rest areas. Environmental disasters have taken its toil as well as the blunders and shortsightedness of governmental organizations. But it still exists as a challenge for hikers who often hike just a part of the trail.

With a companion from his college days, the overweight and sometimes blundering Stephen Katz from Des Moines, Bryson starts out in Georgia with the plan of completing the entire trail. They know this is a challenge for them. Both of them are novices, and with a sense of depreciating humor, he shares his personal point of view with the reader -- his apprehensions, his fatigue, the people he meets, the places he visits and his companionship with his friend.

Not is all deep woods, however, and their infrequent sojourns to towns where they can occasionally go to a restaurant and sleep in a motel are welcome relief before they pick up their packs again and once more walk all day and sleep in their tents at night. And then there is the part of the trail where they must sleep in rat-infested shelters with other hikers and well as weather conditions that include a roaring blizzard and icy conditions.

My son-in-law has hiked part of the Appalachian trail and gave me this book. It gave me insight into some of the experiences he must have had. And it also made me yearn for an outdoor adventure myself.

But whether you are a skilled outdoors person, or an armchair traveler like me, this book is a wonderful read.

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Summary: A charming, informative, and just-plain-fun read!
Review: This book is for anyone who likes to walk and enjoy nature. Mr. Bryson is a terrific writer, and I didn't realize till after I had bought the book that I had read another of his, The Mother Tongue, which I also loved. So I happily started in on this one, and he doesn't disappoint. I learned a lot about the Appalachian Trail (well, I hardly knew anything to begin with), but also learned about the National Park Service, along with some history of the eastern U.S., including the town of Centralia in Pennsylvania, which was vacated because of the coal seams under it burning out of control. He brings to his writing the perspective of having lived abroad for 20 years, along with a lively curiosity and sense of humor. There were places in this book that had me laughing till I cried. But when I read about the chestnut trees and birds that are now extinct, I just cried for the waste. This book is a pretty fast read, but that is partly because you just can't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: "Laugh And Learn"
Review: This is a nature book for non-nature people. Really works because it deals with two guys who are not experienced hikers. The writing is down to earth and loaded with wise crack observations. Bryson's companion, Katz, rules! If there is one man who shouldn't be hiking the AT, it's him. All along the way the two encounter all sorts of bizzare, interesting and friendly people. Mary Ellen was the best! Perhaps THE MOST ANNOYING WOMAN ON THE PLANET! The scenes with her were a riot! Bryson's observations on the Trail, its flora and fauna, its history, its future are done wonderfully. He does a good job of putting you on the AT, going through blizzards and heatwaves, sleeping in rickety wooden shelters buried in the woods and walking through little unheard of towns along the Trail. The book drags for a bit about 3/4 of the way through when Bryson hits Pennsylvania. Probably because PA is the worst part of the Trail. But his exploits there end with a hysterical scene where he's dealing with a security guard who thinks his badge gives him the right to act like Idi Amin. Want to know all about the AT? Get this book.

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."

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Summary: Uncovers some effects of civilization...
Review: Though his book isn't the best book I've read in a while, it was entertaining and did make me walk to start hiking for often. The parts a appreciated most however dealt with the US Forest Service, logging, road building, acid rain, and hunting owls, lions, and bears for bounties. He cites some good sources for information on the destruction of the forests of North America, but fails to deal with the destruction of the planet as a global phenomenon. He also fails to connect the problem with choices being made by people--especially people just like him. While I learned something from his story, there is much more to be said about the violence of our culture and the demise of the natural world.