Rating: 
Summary: Would have liked a little less self-involvement
Review: I was embarrassed for Mrs. Rubin, whose husband told the whole world that he was not very happy with their marriage. He also was not happy in his work (ahh...poor baby!), which we heard about at length. Otherwise, this was a "fact book" about the AT.If you want to read one really great book about the AT, read Bryson's book. This one is just so-so.
Rating:
Summary: Thru-hiker's Success Story
Review: I'm a thru-hiker wanna-be, so I've read several of these journals - some better and many worse. The thing that stands out to me in Rubin's book is the way he grows from a whining, irritable hiker in the south, to a thru-hiker that is truly wrapped up in the wonder of the AT at the end. He also has real-life problems that linger in the back of his mind: home responsibilities (with the matching set of guilt complexes) and a job that sucks, but he still manages to complete the pilgrimage which is no small feat. Not funny like Bryson or technical like some of the others, but interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Author Rubin is also a trail volunteer
Review: It is important for readers to know that author Rubin is more than an thru-hiker of the AT. He has also been an active member of PATH (Piedmont Appal Trail Hikers) for many years, a volunteer group that maintains a 57-mile stretch of the AT in SW Virginia. Robert, with others of our group, helps thru-hikers have a clear path, by removing fallen trees and other obstacles. Robert also served as PATH's newsletter editor for a long time, redesigning its look and redesigning our distinctive patch. He has many times over "given something back" to the AT, rather than merely hiking it and then moving on to something else. He continues to serve the AT with his editorship of "Appalachian Trailways News" in Harpers Ferry and support of PATH. Thanks, Robert, for taking us along your trek north to Maine. About 33 volunteer groups take care of the AT along the 2,166-mile route.Karl KunkelHigh Point, NC
Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: It's strange to read a book where I slowed down toward the end of the book and "rationed" off the remainder so it wouldn't end. I highly recommend it if you're interested in the Appalachian trail.
Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: It's strange to read a book where I slowed down toward the end of the book and "rationed" off the remainder so it wouldn't end. I highly recommend it if you're interested in the Appalachian trail.
Rating:
Summary: nice
Review: its a good read,i really enjoyed it, of course i'm a little bias since i hiked the trail in 97 also, starting 2 days after robert "rymin worm" rubin, but none the less its a good read and better than a walk in the woods.
Rating: 
Summary: Self-involved couple make for poor reading...
Review: Just finished this book and was greatly disappointed. Rubin is exactly the kind of self-involved, arrogent charcter that I dread running into while hiking. Furthere, are we supposed to feel sympathy for this wife? The longest these two are apart is six weeks yet she manages to pout, faint and cry hysterically due to the "stress" of being seperated from her husband. Anyone who has a parent or spouse in the military, foreign service or on a mission or has been in a long distance relationship will find her inability to deal with life on her own for short periods of time tiresome and pathetic. In the meantime, Rubin dishes out just enough guilt so that we don't "blame" him for his spouses hysteria, yet obviously doesn't care enough about her to get off the trail. This is more a tale of a very unhealthy marriage than of a journey on a beaten path. Less melodrama and more focus on the trail itself would have helped.
Rating:
Summary: A book that really gets you inside a thru-hiker.
Review: Last month I completed my southbound thru-hike of the AT and I was looking for a book that captures the essence of what it is to be a thru-hiker and do a thru-hike. Robert Rubin does an absolutely perfect job of describing what it's like. I laughed my way through this book because I could relate so well to all that he wrote. If you want to feel what it's like to do a thru-hike read this book. It really gets you there. I know, my toes are still numb, my knees still a little sore. Happy Trails,
Play-doh, MEGA '02 June 6, 2002 to November 8, 2002
Rating:
Summary: A book that really gets you inside a thru-hiker.
Review: Last month I completed my southbound thru-hike of the AT and I was looking for a book that captures the essence of what it is to be a thru-hiker and do a thru-hike. Robert Rubin does an absolutely perfect job of describing what it's like. I laughed my way through this book because I could relate so well to all that he wrote. If you want to feel what it's like to do a thru-hike read this book. It really gets you there. I know, my toes are still numb, my knees still a little sore. Happy Trails,
Play-doh, MEGA '02 June 6, 2002 to November 8, 2002
Rating:
Summary: An Engrossing Virtual Hike...
Review: My first copy was free, but I'm going to buy more as gifts because I want this author to write more! When I got my copy of this book at a recent booksellers convention, Robert Rubin asked me as he signed it, "So, is this a dream of yours, to hike the Appalachian Trail?" No doubt an amusing question to ask of a slightly plump, middle-aged woman exhausted after 4 hours of walking the floors, but in actuality, I had to tell him -- "Yes!" Years ago I had a dream, to take 6 months off from work and life, and walk the Appalachian Trail, alone. There has to be more to life than working 9-to-5, I'd thought -- a sentiment Rubin shared when he made his decision to abandon job and wife for half a year. In my case, time slipped away. I grew older, with more responsibilities and limitations, and recently realized that for me, this long and lone journey isn't likely to happen. This book simultaneously put that dream to rest, while making it come as true as it can be for me. In the beginning of the book, Rubin shares a quote you'd find at the start of the journey -- "Appalachian Trail - Georgia to Maine - A Footpath for those who seek Fellowship with the Wilderness." In this shared journal of his 6 month venture, Rubin finds just that, and more. From the start. he knows he's going on some sort of pilgrimage -- a search for meaning in his life. Though he never spells out what he found, by the end of his journey, it is clear that he has gotten where he needed to go. Rubin is a true storyteller, weaving together day-to-day happenings with past events that put him on this path, pulling the reader in so close we are there with him as his body is put through the rigors of 2,160 miles of walking, climbing, falling (don't let hikers tell you they never fall on the Appalachian trail!), being sick and eating portable meals that eventually taste like paste. His humor shows through - I laughed outloud in several places (that's just not like me - I'm more of a silent smirker). He develops friendships with other thruhikers -- those who are hiking the trail from start to finish -- Kilgore Trout, RockDancer and many more - while struggling to assure his wife of ten years that though he's left her behind (alone at home with the dog), he will be coming back. Hiking this trail is one of the last adventures in the United States -- it would be impossible to finish it without changing your self, to some degree. Each section has a map of the leg of the journey he's on with miles hiked, and miles to go. By the end of the book, as the 'to go' got down to less than 150, I was nearly as excited as he must have been -- almost there! Never once did I get the message from him (though others would strongly disagree) that those who don't make it all the way through are 'less than.' In fact, I find myself wondering now if I could be a "section hiker" -- for me, a month would more than meet my pilgrimage needs, while probably being the emotional and physical equivalent of Rubin's 6 month journey. If you're a wanna be hiker, if you watch the Travel Channel, or liked watching "Survivor" for the adventure and camaraderie (before it started getting really mean), you will love this book! I'll be buying a copy for at least one of my three sons, the middle one who isn't quite sure what to do with the rest of his life. Meanwhile, I'm going to buy myself a book on short hikes on the Appalachian Trail. Anyone care to join me?
| 
