Rating: 
Summary: Finding One's Inner Self
Review: Once I started on this book it was hard to put it down. We all have had similar experiences as did the author. Maybe our's was not the AT, but every character and situation was believable. Who of us has not had unique friends and situations that made us both happy and sad. But when alone...really ALONE in the forest (ordinary life) we do find how fragile we actually are. It was enjoyable to get to laugh at someone else having the "short end of the stick" for a change!
Rating:
Summary: LOL!
Review: At times laugh-out-loud funny, this book was hard to put down. For those who have been on extended hikes in the woods, you'll get a kick out of the descriptions of fellow hikers and what goes on. For those of you who don't hike, you'll enjoy it also. That's the beauty of the book--you don't have to have been down the same trail as Mr. Bryson to get a laugh and enjoy yourself as his writing makes you feel as though your're right there in the moment. Mr. Bryson certainly has an ear for dialogue, and the format of this book reminds me of McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood. The commentaries on the South, Stonewall Jackson, along with what happens to the characters along the way makes this one of the most entertaining reads I've come across in a long time. Along with A Short History of Nearly Everything, this is one of my favorite books. Bryson and Katz provide some of the best entertainment this side of the Mississippi. The book is part Garison Keillor, part Vonnegut, with a dose of down-home humor thrown in for good measure. This one won't disappoint.Also recommended: A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Bark of the Dogwood
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't stop laughing!!!
Review: Very seldom these days do I pick up a book and laugh so hard I pee!! Bill Bryson is a master at laughing at himself and yes, at others! I live in North Carolina, have hiked across Fontana Dam (just to say I walked on the AT) and everything he had to say about NC and the South was absolutely true. Just two years ago I spent a miserable day in Gatlinburg so reading his disection of this mass of consumerism in the heart of one of our great national parks made my day. I will continue to search out and read more of his books because I really enjoy his type of humor.
Rating:
Summary: My Side Still Hurts From Laughing
Review: This was the first Bill Bryson book I picked up, and it introduced me to a world of comical travel literature that I never knew existed. I was thinking about taking a weekend hike on the Appalachian Trail when my father-in-law insisted I take a look at this book. I did, and my side still hurts from laughing. From buying equipment to discarding eqipment to the misery and joy of the AT, this book is a must read for anyone who is the slightest bit curious about what goes on during a trail hike. You don't have to be a hiker to enjoy this book -- you just have to know how to read. Just in case you're curious, I took my hike, and plan to take many others. Through them all, this book is my constant companion.
Rating: 
Summary: As a hiker, the author Cheated
Review: Hello. I was enjoying the book until about 1/2 way through, when the author and his companion decide to rent a car and drive from Knoxville to Roanoke. That's a distance of 259 McNally altas miles, but who knows how many Blue Ridge Mountain AT miles. This (driving instead of hiking) is like a football player selling a book about his experiences in the Super Bowl, but by the way he decided to sit out the second quarter because he was tired.
So, you may read this book for just the fun of it, but don't expect to learn about hiking. To be accurate, the title should be "A Walk and a Drive and a Walk", but then who would buy it.
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: Simply a Great Book - You Can Smell The Woods
Review: My introduction to Bill's books were in Australia. I had never heard of him before. I was in the airports first in Sydney, then in Melbourne and there were these giant stacks of books about Australia with yellow covers (his "Down Under"). It seemed like everyone was buying a copy. I followed suit and bought mine. Since then I have ben hooked. It is just a great book with a lot of humour. One gets totally involved with the story of the trail, the preparation, his unlikely friend who arrived 100% unprepared for the walk but then made it, and the camping and the snow, and the rain, and the breaks from the trail to come into some town or hamlet on the route. It is all very good. Since then I have bought most of his books, but still have not got the nerve to walk the trail myself but sometimes I dream that I am making the hike. That's how good this book is. Easy five stars. Jack in Toronto
Rating: 
Summary: Was expecting more humor
Review: Don't get me wrong...I did find humor in this book, specifically the idiosyncratic Katz, but it was not the gut-clenching hilarity I had been promised by friends. I did enjoy the historical side-bars Bryson took that helped me form a clearer opinion of the U.S. Forest Service.
Rating:
Summary: Great for those who have experienced the AT.
Review: Some 22 years ago, as a recent high school graduate, I and a few of my classmates hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail for the first time. It was one of the best experiences of my life and Bill Bryson has allowed me to relive my youth. I am at that tenuous age (do the math) looking for that "City Slicker" adventure and just might consider embarking once again on the AT. Before I do though, I am going to stock-up on other Bill Bryson titles.
Rating:
Summary: Let's Walk through the Appalachain Trail (AT) with Bryson
Review: This book represented my introduction to Bill Bryson's writing and I liked it. Many readers have become loyal fans of this accomplished writer, so I am not a deluded pioneer blazing any trail, real or imaginary. However, some readers I spoke with about this book admitted they could not read the entire book; in other words, they skipped big chunks of the "WALK in the WOODS". I conceded that Bryson is an accomplished and successful writer, but this book is not perfect ... except for the first half! At first I laughed uproariously and often, but then I began to raise my eyebrows at Bryson's criticism of other hikers, fast food, and government agencies in the middle pages of "A Walk in the Woods". Bryson set off to hike the 2,200 (or 2,199?) miles of America's popular Appalachian Trail (AT) with Stephen Katz, a friend he had not seen in twenty years. Katz ends up a hero (at least for me) because he is described as inept for the challenge and yet he brought a unique sense of humor, determination and wit (expletives apart) to the trail. It was not one continuous hike and when Katz returned to Iowa to a construction job for a few months, Bryson and I missed him. When Katz (returns and) gets lost in Maine at the hike's end, I became as worried as Bryson. The hardest section of the AT for our team came when they reached Maine, not only because of the taxing mountain terrain but also because they needed to wade across ponds and streams in an unexpectedly muggy spell. The middle two-fifths of this book is rather tedious reading: my Mount Katahdin! Need I say that Katz was in Iowa for these chapters? The brief conversations between these sometimes very tired hikers yielded insight and light upon everything from beer to bears. Without Katz's pragmatism and repartee, Bill Bryson becomes preachy. However, he passes the big test with flying colors. My test was to ask if I had learned anything useful about hiking the AT. I immediately listed that I would take excellent maps, water filters, extra clothes and a jacket irrespective of the season, plus the advice (too late for Katz, perhaps), "You should never leave the trail, Stephen." (p.266). The book is informative about flora and fauna on the AT, especially when Bryson delves into accounts of ice ages, glaciers and geology. He writes authoritatively about the small towns of America. We also learn that "it takes about five months, and five million steps, to walk the trail from end to end." (p.8). And that the AT is America's trail, even though there are longer or perhaps more beautiful trails that were made before and since the 1930s. The one criticism of the book already alluded to is that Bryson is too long-winded on topics such as the dangers of commercialism. He beats about the bushes (literally!) and is critical of the Forest Service that operates like a logging and road-building service. Or is this merely Bryson's innocuous crime of padding? In any event, I recommend this book to those who need an introduction to the AT, its unique plant and mammalian life - where one sees more species in one small section than in all of Europe. I appreciated Bryson's admission at the end: "I had come to realize that I didn't have any feelings towards the AT that weren't confused and contradictory. I was weary of the trail, but still strangely in its thrall; found the endless slog tedious but irresistible; grew tired of the boundless woods but admired their boundlessness; enjoyed the escape from civilization and ached for its comforts". A.S. DEO (Ph.D)
Director, Holistic Institute of Education (Boston)
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