Rating: 
Summary: Bryson Says It Better
Review: I agree with the person from Weirton, WV. I feel sorry for Rubins's wife and how he had to get away from his job. Wouldn't we all like to do that. I know I would. Financially that is impossible for me. I also read Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and couldn't put it down. It took me forever to read On The Beaten Path. It just didn't hold my interest. Bryson was so descriptive (good and bad). Rubin just kept going back to the same old story about how his life wasn't that great. Cheers for his wife who stood beside him and Jeers to Rubin for putting her through it!
Rating: 
Summary: If you liked A Walk In the Woods, you'll love this one
Review: I agree, if you liked A Walk in the Woods, you may like this one, because both books humor rather than inform. The author of this book tries to instill sympathy for himself throughout the book because of his hardships. A sympathy I feel is not merited. As he hikes, he does not find happiness with nature, but every step is full of agony. Every day hiking is not all roses, but there is no need to focus on the bad times.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked A Walk In the Woods, you'll love this one
Review: I agree, if you liked A Walk in the Woods, you may like this one, because both books humor rather than inform. The author of this book tries to instill sympathy for himself throughout the book because of his hardships. A sympathy I feel is not merited. As he hikes, he does not find happiness with nature, but every step is full of agony. Every day hiking is not all roses, but there is no need to focus on the bad times.
Rating: 
Summary: An outward journey with an inner journey
Review: I could sense through this story how the author fights not only fatigue, monotony and injury but also goes through emotional trials and guilt regarding his marriage, his career and his place in the world. The trail becomes a salve to his emotional wounds, even as it eats his body away. He comes away from the trail much lighter in mind and body. Anyone who is aged 30 to 50 will relate to his ambivalence to what his life had become and will come away from his tale wanting to run, not walk, to the nearest park. A great read!
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational Book
Review: I find little reason to say whether this is better or worse than Bryson's book. Instead, I would say that this is another great book for all of us who are either interested in hiking or enjoy sharing these adventures by living vicariously through the author for a short while. Rubin gives you first-hand accounts of what he found out on the trail, but more importantly, he gives the reader insight into his reasons for being there (which may be very different from other hikers' reasons - thus the reason to read his account). The people on the trail are a varied bunch and many of them will live on that trail or on some other pilgrimage forever. For Rubin, while he will always love to hike, I got the feeling that he found what he was looking for out there and this book gave him some sense of closure regarding issues that bothered him when he started. As a reader, I felt much more inspired by the book knowing that the journey had a meaning for Rubin and that he found what that meaning was.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL!
Review: I first saw this book erroneously placed in a book store and started reading the first page. After 40 minutes of standing and reading it, I brought it home and devoured it. It is the most enchanting chronicle of a man who does something that everyone in their lifetime thinks about doing. I have always wanted to trek the Appalachian Trail and this book has so much to offer to somebody sho has the vision of finding personal freedom.
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: I have now read the Bill Bryson book as well as this one. Although this book did not have the funny characters as in the "Walk in the Woods", this book was much better to me. The author tells us about his life not only on the trail but keeps us up to date with his life off the trail. He did a very good job keeping us updated with all the folks he met while on the trail.
Rating:
Summary: Not a How-to Book.
Review: I recently completed reading "On the Beaten Path" by Robert Rubin. It is a (recent) release about an Appalachian thruhike pilgrimage. You have probably read other journals if considering walking the 2100 mile journey but I am sure you won't find one better. It is not a "how to" book. Rather, his prose are that of a trained writer which makes reading the journal swift and entertaining. Rubin somehow doesn't write much about his gear not unlike a surgeon omitting comments about a particular scalpel. Being a gear addict, I was dissappointed because of this omission but accepted the fact that his load was just plain heavy. Rubin does write of the heavy feeling in his heart as each step takes him further and further from his wife but closer to his ultimate goal of completing the trail.I never really considered thruhiking the Appalachian Trail. Too many sacrifices and excuses at this stage of my life. Robert Rubin felt the same way but one day realized he needed to do something meaningful for himself. I may not ever find myself on Springer Mountain in Georgia where the trail commences but after reading this delightful book, I will always look at thruhikers with a renewed amount of respect. - John
Rating:
Summary: Not a How-to Book.
Review: I recently completed reading "On the Beaten Path" by Robert Rubin. It is a (recent) release about an Appalachian thruhike pilgrimage. You have probably read other journals if considering walking the 2100 mile journey but I am sure you won't find one better. It is not a "how to" book. Rather, his prose are that of a trained writer which makes reading the journal swift and entertaining. Rubin somehow doesn't write much about his gear not unlike a surgeon omitting comments about a particular scalpel. Being a gear addict, I was dissappointed because of this omission but accepted the fact that his load was just plain heavy. Rubin does write of the heavy feeling in his heart as each step takes him further and further from his wife but closer to his ultimate goal of completing the trail. I never really considered thruhiking the Appalachian Trail. Too many sacrifices and excuses at this stage of my life. Robert Rubin felt the same way but one day realized he needed to do something meaningful for himself. I may not ever find myself on Springer Mountain in Georgia where the trail commences but after reading this delightful book, I will always look at thruhikers with a renewed amount of respect. - John
Rating:
Summary: Well-balanced account of an AT thruhike
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this chronicle of one thruhiker's journey on the Appalachian Trail, reading the entire thing in one night when I should have been doing other work. Rubin is candid, humorous, and brutally honest about himself, his shortcomings, and his complex relationships with others (particularly his wife Cathy). He acknowledges upfront that his reasons for tackling the AT are somewhat nebulous, though it appears a sense of ennui with life and his editorial job are the main culprits. Here is AT subculture in all its glory - Rubin has both amusing and sobering accounts of his fellow hikers. There is a woman who stays true to her makeup regimen every day before hiking, a couple obsessive about analyzing their every move on the Trail, and a bragging yuppie type trying to save face in light of the emptiness inside. Rubin ventures into deeper ruminations: Why do hikers adopt a temporary "trail name"/identity for the experience? How do you cope with those you leave behind? How do they cope? While he can't offer quick-fix answers, he deals with these questions on a level that's refreshing to see (unlike Bill Bryson's book, where he leaves his wife and four kids for weeks on the AT and hardly expresses an afterthought). There are a few sections where Rubin's trains of thought are long-winded, or he uses far too many words to get to the point. He hiked the AT in 1997 and his chronicles about learning of Princess Di's death early that fall give the book a dated and forced "where-were-you-when" feel. Far more eerie was a short description of how the top floors of the Twin Towers are the first things he can see and identify in the Manhattan skyline. In the end, however, it is clear that he has a lot of wisdom to offer after his time on the Trail - both his own quotable passages and well-chosen verses and phrases from Walt Whitman, Thoreau, and John McPhee that he has selected for chapter openers and for his own philosophical discourses. In one of the more memorable sections of the book, he realizes why his complacent behavior at the office made the job turn sour for him. His issues may not be 100% resolved at Katahdin, but the book finishes with a true sense of having completed something worthwhile, and being the better off for it.
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