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

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

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 107,979 ratings · 7,439 reviews

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail.

The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular l...more

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Published May 4th 1998 by Random House Audio (first published November 1st 1997)

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Aug 14, 2012 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, wine-club, 2012, reviewed

I am what some might call a pussy hiker. I do genuinely enjoy a leisurely stroll in the “mountains” of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. I like the pretty views. I always bring my conveniently-sized L.L. Bean backpack ($39.95 from the Kittery Outlets) so I have a place for my camera and cell phone. But by early afternoon, I would like to be done, please. I would like to be done and sitting at a booth in a pub with my burger and beer. Camping is certainly worthy of consideration, but here...more I am what some might call a pussy hiker. I do genuinely enjoy a leisurely stroll in the “mountains” of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. I like the pretty views. I always bring my conveniently-sized L.L. Bean backpack ($39.95 from the Kittery Outlets) so I have a place for my camera and cell phone. But by early afternoon, I would like to be done, please. I would like to be done and sitting at a booth in a pub with my burger and beer. Camping is certainly worthy of consideration, but here’s the deal: I don’t do rain. In light of the fact that weather reports are unreliable beyond a 48-hour window (and even that is pushing it in New England), it is unlikely I would ever camp for more than a two-night stay. Oh, and if I were to camp, I would like it to be at a site that has free Wi-Fi.

What this amounts to is that the Appalachian Trail, endearingly referred to by those hiking it as “the AT,” will never be anything more to me than a lovely little map.

(click to enlarge)

BUT. I am glad for gung-ho people like Bryson and his chubby checker friend Katz who did walk “the AT” and are kind enough to let me know what I am missing. As it turns out, I am not missing much. This is not to downplay the extraordinarity of a 2,200-mile trail of wilderness running from Georgia to Maine, a trail that takes the average thru-hiker six months to complete, but in terms of day-to-day variation, it is basically a shitload of trees followed by another shitload of trees.

For me, this book makes a better argument for the day hike. There are many parts of the trail I would enjoy, including the Smoky Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Delaware Water Gap. Like Bryson, though, I am a people person, and I enjoy my simple human comforts. I would like to see these areas without having to make an extended departure from civilization. Why can’t I have both—my nature and my nurture? Fortunately for me, almost a full third of the Appalachian Trail is in New England, so maybe I can have it all—because I think if there is one thing I’ve learned from Bryson’s experience, it is that I don’t have to suffer through long days of cold rain and hungry nights to enjoy what the Appalachian Trail has to offer.(less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who like a Little Comedy Sprinkled in With Nature

Shelves: travel, comedy, memoir, new-england

This is the type of book that my wife and kids hide from me. When I read nature books, I hear the call of the wild and start answering. Like Buck, ancestral spirits summon me. But when I attempt to enthusiastically mimic that voice to my family, I have a mutiny on my hands or, more precisely, passive resistance of a flinty quality that would impress Gandhi.

An infantry captain affixes his bayonet and charges half-way to the enemy trench, only to realize that nobody is following him. The troops t...more This is the type of book that my wife and kids hide from me. When I read nature books, I hear the call of the wild and start answering. Like Buck, ancestral spirits summon me. But when I attempt to enthusiastically mimic that voice to my family, I have a mutiny on my hands or, more precisely, passive resistance of a flinty quality that would impress Gandhi.

An infantry captain affixes his bayonet and charges half-way to the enemy trench, only to realize that nobody is following him. The troops think him, quite possibly, mad. This happens whenever I read Edward Abbey, John Muir, Thoreau, or Lewis and Clark. My spirit guides command me to wilderness adventure. My family responds in unanimous Greek chorus, “the woods are lovely dark and deep, but you have promises to keep.”

So instead, I settled for a book about a comic attempt by two guys (like me) in their forties to hike the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail during the spring/summer of 1997. Even as I laughed out loud, I wept silently for all that I have missed and all that has already been lost. I so badly wanted to be with Bryson and Katz, congenial trailmates both.

Afoot and light-hearted, we take to the open road. The pace is leisurely. We pause to study flora, fauna, geology, and regional lore. We meet a few crackpots along the way. Sometimes Bryson gets to preachin'. (He does not like the U.S. Forest Service, and the good citizens and tourists of Gatlinburg, TN, do not want to know what Bryson thought of them 15 years ago.)

Very quickly, I begin to have my doubts as to whether we are going to actually make the South-North (SONO thru-hike) to Mt. Kathadin before the snow makes New England impassable.

The hardest parts of the trail include: The Hundred-Mile Wilderness through dense forests and swollen rivers of northern Maine (so remote you need 10-day’s worth of food and water, which you must lug along with all gear); New Hampshire’s White Mountains (alpine and sub alpine elevations and erratic weather invite unexpected hypothermia even in summer). Pennsylvania’s rocky trail (“Rocksylvania”) makes it particularly dangerous to ankles. The Smoky Mountains, although scenic, are uncommonly steep for the east coast and limited accommodations must be shared with a multitude of tourists. Forget the bears, rodents in the shelters are the biggest threat from the animal kingdom.

This is not your ancestors’ U.S. Eastern forest. The AT is wilder today than when it was first blazed back in the 1920's because the government seized the surrounding farms, which reverted to the wild. Asian blight wiped out the Chestnut trees at the beginning of the century, killing one-fourth of all trees in the eastern USA. The ghost-town of Centralia, PA, was built upon anthracite coal deposits that have been burning underground for 50 years and will continue to burn for at least 250 more years making the surrounding land uninhabitable. ( I was astounded to learn that 50,000 U.S. miners were killed between the U.S. Civil War and World War I.)

It has long been a dream of mine to thru-hike the AT. Whenever it’s a damp, drizzly November in my soul, my heart takes to the wilderness, while my body remains imprisoned in comfort, convenience, circumstance, and inertia. Call me Ishmael.

I first wrote and posted this review on April 3, 2012.(less)

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Jan 31, 2007 erin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Smug jerks, misanthropes, tourists

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I thought I'd spent the last of my holiday indulging in a witty travelogue to set my feet itching. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong book. Years of declining the advice of the Bryson-worshipers, it seems, was not in vain.

I'm halfway through, and - like the author on the daunting trail - am unsure as to whether or not I can finish my task. Bryson sounds, to put it mildly, a real jerk. He's smug and superior, and spends most of the book complaining about his co...more

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May 07, 2009 Ken-ichi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ken-ichi by: Maggi

Shelves: travel, naturalism, nature

Undoubtedly an amusing, breezy read, full of the kind of fun and hilarity all the blurbs lead you to expect. For instance, "Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old." That had me laughing on the train.

I can't say I liked this book quite as much as some of my friends seem to. On the one hand, I've had at least 1 semi-grueling backpacking experience with a companion who was wholly unprepared for a rigorous day...more

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Sep 15, 2007 Dylan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

I have read most of Bill Bryson's books and they are all good-- excellent even. His gift is in his ability to detect the humor in any situation. Where you or I might see a man walking down the street he sees something, and articulates it so well, packed with humor. But this book is his best. The reason, I think, is that it takes him out of his element. His natural writing style is this so-called "travel writing" genre-- the idea that someone goes somewhere and writes about it and their time ther...more

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Apr 02, 2008 Paul Burton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I live within a couple miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, and I have toyed with day hikes and weekend treks up and down the trail near home, so I picked up this book to glimpse the musings of Bill Bryson on the experience of doing the whole trail.

I've been somewhat drawn to Bryson for a while. Although I've never read any of his work, somehow I knew I would like his style. I did.

In a walk in the woods, Bryson manages to take you along with him and his burnt out buddy not just on a trail...more

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May 17, 2007 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone still breathing

Shelves: jackrecommends, reallygoodstuff

Imagine a grueling, four-month wilderness trek along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Your guide: an intellectual, who lived half his life in England, well versed in geology, zoology, ecology and pretty much all of the other ‘ologies.’ Yet, this far from ordinary guide summons the sparkle of Twain, and of Billy Crystal. Picture all of this for a sense of what can be found inside the covers of Bill Bryson’s "A Walk in the Woods." Bryson, a self-deprecating intellectual of the first or...more Imagine a grueling, four-month wilderness trek along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Your guide: an intellectual, who lived half his life in England, well versed in geology, zoology, ecology and pretty much all of the other ‘ologies.’ Yet, this far from ordinary guide summons the sparkle of Twain, and of Billy Crystal. Picture all of this for a sense of what can be found inside the covers of Bill Bryson’s "A Walk in the Woods." Bryson, a self-deprecating intellectual of the first order, provides massive helpings of horse-laughing humor that are pleasantly painful to read. The compulsion to read aloud "Walk’s" funnier passages to friends and family overwhelms, as does the desire to pass the book on to others after the warmth of the last page flickers.

Bryson grew up in Iowa. While in his twenties, he moved to England where he spent 20 years writing for British and American publications. In 1996 he and his family returned to the United States, settling in New Hampshire. One day, he “happened on a path that vanished into the wood on the edge of town.” That path was a tiny segment of the Appalachian Trail: a continuous 2,100-mile, mostly-wilderness trail along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. Intrigued, Bryson thought, what better way to reacquaint himself with his native land, and at the same time: “It would get me fit after years of waddlesome sloth." After thorough research, Bryson determines his undertaking would be difficult, requiring a companion. Exhausting all of his best choices, Bryson settles on Steve Katz, an old high school buddy. Katz, an overweight and out of shape, X - Files addicted, Snicker munching, surprisingly fetching sidekick becomes the focal point of much of Walk’s hilarity and pathos.

A number of unforgettable characters pop up along the trail. Most memorable is the gratingly obnoxious Mary Ellen, who after she had tagged along for several days, Bryson and Katz ditch using an elaborate deception. “She was, as Katz forever termed her in a special tone of awe, a piece of work." They encounter Bob, the world’s foremost authority on everything. Bryson and Katz spend several days with the delightful John Connolly, a New York schoolteacher who had been hiking the trail a bit at a time for 19 years. One night the three camp with seventeen Boy Scouts and three adult supervisors, “all charmingly incompetent.” After watching a night of the scout’s ineptness: “Even Katz agreed that this was better than TV."

Along the way, Bryson painlessly inserts lessons of history, geology, entomology, and more. We learn about the changes acid rain has brought to the wild, and he recounts the stories of the southern pine beetle, the smoky madtom and wooly adelgids, and about Daniel Boone, Henry David Thoreau and Stonewall Jackson. Bryson delivers an extended geology lesson on the tectonic formation of the 470 million year-old Appalachian Mountains that palatably educates. While praising some of their employees, Bryson effectively and mercilessly bashes the U.S. Forest Service (road builders for the logging industry – “eight times the total mileage of America’s interstate highway system," the National Park Service (“actually has something of a tradition of making things extinct"), and the Army Corps of Engineers (“they don’t build things very well").

Bryson makes his environmental bent abundantly clear. But, his lessons rarely become preachy. They reflect the all too human predisposition to seek the easy way, the momentary thrill, and always at a cost. Without accusation, Bryson reminds us of those often easy to ignore environmental costs.

Bill Bryson’s "A Walk in the Woods" lovingly opens a window to “an America that millions of people scarcely know exists.” There are problems to solve along this great, mountain forest trail. Yet, the air intoxicates. The sights are unforgetable. And the smile remains(less)

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Jun 13, 2008 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: naturalist, nonfiction, travel, new-england

I have a friend in Vermont who spent his honeymoon hiking the Appalachian Trail. It took them 6 months, start to finish. They now live in a home powered by solar batteries. Like Bryson, their respect for nature is very real. This is an entertaining account of Bryson's experience and can vicariously give us a sense of what it might be like to live without the conveniences we have come to take for granted.

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Jun 18, 2012 Ash rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure-travel, ownold-dup, memoir-biography, 2012-read

3 and 1/2 stars

My first book which was a travelogue. Interesting but also little monotonous and boring at places, because he dumped way too many facts. The facts were interesting but sometimes made me sleepy. It was good but not exactly "great", the way I thought it would be. I have not been to AT, so in a way it was kinda exciting to read about it. I have one complaint from books like this - "Why don't they put any photos?"

I kind of did not like Bryson's egoistic attitude. He acted like a jer...more 3 and 1/2 stars

My first book which was a travelogue. Interesting but also little monotonous and boring at places, because he dumped way too many facts. The facts were interesting but sometimes made me sleepy. It was good but not exactly "great", the way I thought it would be. I have not been to AT, so in a way it was kinda exciting to read about it. I have one complaint from books like this - "Why don't they put any photos?"

I kind of did not like Bryson's egoistic attitude. He acted like a jerk in many circumstances and made an idiot out of Katz (which I did not quite like). Otherwise I liked the way he explained all the important mountains, terrains and dangers that lurk in AT. I also liked the facts that he brought out about park service's negligence due to lack of funds, murders on AT, hunting, animals getting extinct and how trees were being mercilessly chopped/died. He mentioned about lot of animals and birds about which I had never heard before in my life.
E.g: Mussel: which are supposed to be freshwater and saltwater mammals with shells. I have seen them but never knew the name.

I did not know that bears liked snickers. I wonder if squirrels like them too. Recently, while trekking, a squirrel followed us when we were hogging on snickers. Out of pity, my hubby threw a snicker at it and it instantly started chewing it.

For a person who has never seen AT, this book was pretty informative. I also watched a documentary on AT where they showed everything that Bryson is talking about. Do watch this if you get a chance: "National Geographic: Appalachian Trail". It showed a 70 year old hiker who completed the entire trail and ended it at Katahdin in Maine. Maine is supposed to be the toughest part of AT. It is about 20% of the trail but requires 80% of the effort. It also spoke of the effects on acid rain on AT. I still wonder how thru-hikers hike through AT. 2,100 miles is not a joke. I cannot even hike for 2 miles without becoming breathless.

Some quotes from the book:
"Each time you haul yourself up to what you think must surely be the crest, you find that there is in fact more hill beyond, sloped at an angle that kept it from view before, and that beyond that slope there is another, and beyond that another and another, and beyond each of those more still, until it seems impossible that any hill could run on this long."

Can anyone suggest me a book about "PACIFIC CREST TRAIL"?(less)

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Mar 24, 2008 Jasmin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

Bryson has a great sense of humor, and does a good job of capturing the quirkiness of backwood folk. However, I was sometimes frustrated by his viewpoints, which dampened my opinion and enjoyment of this book. For instance, Bryson says on page 199:

"To tell you the truth I was getting a little wearied of this [remote wilderness]. I know the Apalachian Trail is suposed to be a wilderness experience, and I accept that there are countless places where it would be a tragedy for it to be otherwise, bu...more

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Zach I don't think you read the book very carefully if you think that he "can't appreciate" a "more secluded wilderness". He spends much of the book praisi...more
Sep 14, 2010 09:07am

Jasmin I did read the book carefully, and I think its a wonderful thing that the trail purposely avoids human contact. I was living in England when I read th...more
Sep 14, 2010 10:17am

Daniell Sutton I believe that was the section where he was discusing that people had been moved from their family homes. He was upset they were uprooted from family...more
Nov 04, 2011 02:01pm

Nov 03, 2007 LINDA rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Nature Lovers

Shelves: nature, discovered-in-the-details

At the recomendation of one of my bosses I took this book along on a strenuous 10 mile backcountry hike in Shenandoah that was full of amazing mountain-top vistas, stream crossings, and beautiful rocky trails framed with fall folliage.

It is a hilarious book that recounts Byson's aventure of preparing for and hiking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail- which actually passes through Shenandoah just miles from where we were camping.

I had started reading the book in the tent by the light of...more

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Oct 12, 2007 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: goal-oriented people

Finishing Part 1, I feel so let down. Bill and Katz have left the AT and gone their separate ways, promising to return end of summer. Now it's no secret they won't conplete the through-hike. I just about feel like giving up the remaining pages myself.

This is my first Bryson read, and it's everything I heard it would be. I like Bryson's sarcastic humor. It's chuckle out loud funny, mostly because I spent 1990-1993 section-hiking the AT. Been there--done that so to speak (except for the Maine and...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Philip by: Timothy Krecsmar

Shelves: non-fiction, jordabecker-book-club

Ok, lets call a spade a spade: 1. Bryson comes across as an ego-maniacal douche, and his friend Katz MADE this book. and 2. (view spoiler)

That out of the way, Bryson was also fairly funny the majority of the time. At least, when he wasn't bashing my home state of Pennsylvania... Some quotes:

"I never met a hiker with a good word to say about Pennsylvania...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Don rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I have had 4-5 people tell me over the years that I ought to read this book, so after Jean read it I kept it around the house. And one evening when I had finished a book and wasn't all that sleepy, I picked this up.

And it made me very sleepy. Lots of sleepy nights with this selection.

Yes, and he's a good writer and this has a few nice little anecdotes.

But jeez, it's just not a very interesting or very good book, that's all. Let's see, it's by a guy who doesn't really like to hike (he'd rather be...more

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Aug 17, 2010 Kristi Vitale rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This summer my family visited Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County in Northern California, and from that moment onward I have been smitten with the park's tranquil beauty. And I seriously think I was bitten by the hiking bug. It was absolutely breathtaking there. I'm yearning to go back into those deep, shady woods, look upward into the treetops, reach my hands outward at my sides, close my eyes, and do one of those in-the-moment twirls while taking the deepest breath of what I call perf...more This summer my family visited Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County in Northern California, and from that moment onward I have been smitten with the park's tranquil beauty. And I seriously think I was bitten by the hiking bug. It was absolutely breathtaking there. I'm yearning to go back into those deep, shady woods, look upward into the treetops, reach my hands outward at my sides, close my eyes, and do one of those in-the-moment twirls while taking the deepest breath of what I call perfect air. I'm sure I'll lose balance and fall over, but who cares.

But I had to come back to reality, as we all do after a long vacation. And I brought home with me a Douglas Fir scented wildcrafted sachet (www.juniperridge.com) purchased in the monument store. I think I cuddled with that thing the whole way home. My kids thought I was nuts. But the fragrance emitted takes me back into that "Twilight/Shiver" scenery. So I'm a very sensory-driven individual.

At home, ready for my next read, I no doubt made a beeline to A WALK IN THE WOODS, which had been sitting on my bookshelves after a browsing purchase months ago.

And continuing on with my review posted during my reading of the book...Let's just say Bill Bryson is hilarious. I enjoyed this wild adventure on the Appalachian Trail. Hence, for your entertainment, regarding bears and quoting the author:

"Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties -- I daresay it would even give a merry toot -- and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag."

See what I mean. Sorry. Had to share.

A WALK IN THE WOODS is a wonderful read; funny, honest, but quite long feeling, as it details the hundreds of miles explored. Bill and his hiking bud Steve are two daring and dedicated trekking comedians. After receiving my full dose of geography and botany info, along with the harsh realities of those who brave the "AT," I think I'll stick to my roundabout at home or a half day at Muir Woods again one day. For now I'm off to cuddle with my sachet. (less)

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Jan 04, 2008 Steve rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-adventure

At the dawn of the twentieth-century, journalists, travel writers, social workers, and adventure seekers descended on the Appalachian Mountains in droves, expecting to find a land of violent, uneducated "hillbillies" whose primary occupations were distilling illegal alcohol and killing one another. That they were mistaken in their assumptions has been demonstrated time and again, in both popular and academic literature.

Almost 100 years later, writer Bill Bryson took a walk on the Appalachian tra...more

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Jun 03, 2009 Eric Aiello rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2009

Quite seriously the funniest and most inspiring book I've read in a long time. The first half (or so) of the book with Katz was hilarious. The brief intermission without Katz was very interesting, but damn, I couldn't wait for Katz to show up again. The last few chapters when Bryson and Katz were hiking the 100 mile wilderness in Maine were tear-and-convulsion-inducingly hilarious. Wonderful, wonderful read!

This entire book is worth the read if only for the part that Bryson describes the moose h...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Ben Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i always tell people that they will either love this (and most of his other) books to death, or that they will find them utterly unamusing. i find them hilarious. i have never laughed so hard while reading a book as with Bryson's books. Give it a go--you'll know after the first few chapters whether you share his witty, tasteful sense of humor or not:)

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Aug 16, 2012 Keryn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humour

Hiking the Appalachian Trail in the East Coast of the USA is clearly not a minor affair - hence 'A Walk in the Woods' it is not. My respect for those who have completed it is immense, and grew as the book progressed - I became increasingly partial to the 'thru-hikers' rather than the day-trippers, though fully cognisant of the fact that a day-trip is more my style, unless its in a comfy warm structure with a hot shower overnight. It also seems that a full thru-hike has a somewhat permanently deb...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Stacy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-2012, nonfiction, travel, books-read-2013, reread

Another great piece of work from Bryson. A WALK IN THE WOODS is a bit of an understatement, since it's about Bryson's walk along the Appalachian Trail. This one features his friend Stephen Katz, a singular fellow.

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Jun 18, 2011 Cass rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, travel-writing, books-i-own

Bill Bryson writes a travel story about his adventures on the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine in the USA.

The book overall fails to deliver in the way that I have come to expect from Bryson (Having previously read and loved The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, In a Sunburned Country and Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe).

One thing that surprised me was that Bryson avoids discussing the sites around him. Was the trail breathtakingly beautiful, were t...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Dennis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was recommended by a friend who thought I might like Bill Bryson's humorous travelogue of his northbound hike through the eastern United States. The cover extolled the author's knack for "wringing the humor out of a soggy sleeping bag." Hilarious travelogue is just the sort of writing I like to aim for on my own trips around the U.S. and in other countries. That's because human nature can be so filled with contradictions and irony, and because I enjoy watching people.

Bill Bryson admitt...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Eric_W rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a wonderful book to listen to while traveling with a group of people. It will keep you interested and laughing heartily all the way to your destination.

Bryson decided one day that it would be a neat thing to hike the Appalachian Trail – all 2,160 miles of it (although the actual length varies depending on the page you might be on in the official guides or what year it is, because the trail is constantly being changed and moved).

Deciding to do a little research, he soon discovered that th...more This is a wonderful book to listen to while traveling with a group of people. It will keep you interested and laughing heartily all the way to your destination.

Bryson decided one day that it would be a neat thing to hike the Appalachian Trail – all 2,160 miles of it (although the actual length varies depending on the page you might be on in the official guides or what year it is, because the trail is constantly being changed and moved).

Deciding to do a little research, he soon discovered that there are certain dangers to walking the trail, including bears, assorted diseases, and “loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities
of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex.”

Henry Thoreau, that great 18-month adventurer into the wilds a short
walk from his town, helped create a great nostalgia for the woods, even though, as Bryson notes, he could “stroll to town for cakes and barley wine, but when he experienced real wilderness, on a visit to Katahdin in 1846, he was unnerved to the core.”

Bryson decided to take Stephen Katz along for the trip. Katz is a character who shows up in several of Bryson’s other books. He’s fat and
lazy --he throws away their water supply to make his pack lighter-- and soon Bryson discovers that this may not be the little walk in the
woods he had expected. After several weeks on the trail, in rather miserable weather, they arrive in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. There, he finds a map of the entire trail, about six inches wide and four feet long, and discovers to his horror that he and Katz have only traveled two inches on the map. “My hair had grown more than that,” he reports.

Even though it’s a very funny book, Bryson makes several serious observations, discussing the mismanagement of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency that builds more roads than any construction company; it supervises and has built more than 378,000 miles of roads, more than eight times the total mileage of the interstate highway system. Most of
these are to service the needs of logging companies that need to get in to chop down more trees. Bryson also discusses the American ambivalence toward nature. We revere it, but are afraid of it as well. The woods are beautiful, but they “choke off views and leave you
muddled and without bearings. They make you feel small and confused and vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs.”

A lot of wilderness still exists in the United States, as he discovers on a section of totally uninhabited wilderness the trail traverses in Maine (he decided to do short sections of the trail after his epiphany in Gatlinburg).

This week-long march leaves the hikers completely on their own and is nowhere near any kind of help should one get into trouble (the AT kills several people yearly). There’s still a lot of nature out there; only 2 percent of the United States is classified as built up and 15,600,000 square miles are completely wooded, without a single resident, and remain impressive despite our mismanagement of the ecology and massive logging.

Bryson ended up walking a total of 870 miles of the trail – not an inconsequential feat. Of the two thousand or so who make the attempt
every year, only about two hundred finish. (less)

7 likes · like · see review

Aug 27, 2007 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, memoirs

Since I was going to be spending six days in Virginia (Roanoke) and Tennessee (Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge), I thought it would be fitting to read Bryson's book about trekking the Appalachian Trail.

I figured that this book would be much like his others--full of comedic prose and a smidgen of factiod thrown in to keep nerds like me happily reading. In some ways, that was there, but it was also rich in history and statistics about the various areas of the trail from Georgia to Maine....including a not...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 24, 2007 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book to be very funny and entertaining. However, I felt that his research and "editorializing" about natural resource management was somewhat lopsided. He is extremely critical of federal agencies such as the National Park Service and the US Forest Service, who really accomplish a lot with little financial resources. His assertion that the Forest Service's job is to merely cut down trees and build roads shows a general lack of knowledge concerning the science behind forest managemen...more

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Jun 18, 2007 Trin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel, american-lit

Reread. I was just in the mood. It was interesting, because the last time I read this book I had just discovered Bill Bryson and I read a whole bunch of his books all at once; this time I got to see more clearly how this one stood out from the pack. It's definitely not my favorite—I think that would probably be Notes From a Small Island, if only because I am equally bewitched by the subject matter—but it's a solid effort all around. I think the best stuff is the stuff about Stephen Katz, who w...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Gail rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-authors, non-fiction

This is my first book of Bryson and already I'm in love. What a fantastically witty writer and his job is what every journalist (whether they realize it or not) wishes it could be -- traveling the world and doing research on the places he visits. The first 40 pages of this book are laugh-out loud funny (seriously, there is one line where Bryson talks about his fear upon encountering a bear where I was crying in bed) but the book, though still VERY humorous, tames down a little once he begins his...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Shelagh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really fun book about backpacking, setting goals, and enjoying friends. Backpacking is the strangest of activities I have ever participated in. It is pure hell, which during the hike I am frequently repeating to myself, "what the hell am I doing here", yet everytime when the hike is finished it is the best time I have ever had. Bryson does a fabulous job illustrating this bizaar dichotomy

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Dec 04, 2008 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel

Bryson is a funny writer, but this book is surely his gem in the comic travel genre. While the author cannot possibly be a slouch, given what he actually achieves, he writes from the perspective of a bumbler who barely manages to make it through. An adventure book for sure, but more than anything laugh out loud funny.

1 like · like · see review

Dec 07, 2008 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Marie by: Shelia DS

Shelves: environmental-themes, nonfiction, travel

My friend Shelia urged me to read Bill Bryson, and he's an author I'd always intended to read but had not gotten around to yet. She recommended that I start with "A Walk in the Woods," and it was a great recommendation.

It's not a book I would normally be drawn to...I'm not a hard core hiker, I've never been to the Appalachian Trail, and the plot just didn't appeal to me more than other books.

But the sign of a great writer is his or her ability to make nonfiction interesting and entertaining, eve...more

1 like · like · see review

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About Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
In The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first t...more

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“My particular dread--the vivid possibility that left me staring at tree shadows on the bedroom ceiling night after night--was having to lie in a small tent, alone in an inky wilderness, listening to a foraging bear outside and wondering what its intentions were. I was especially riveted by an amateur photograph in Herrero's book, taken late at night by a camper with a flash at a campground out West. The photograph caught four black bears as they puzzled over a suspended food bag. The bears were clearly startled but not remotely alarmed by the flash. It was not the size or demeanor of the bears that troubled me--they looked almost comically nonaggressive, like four guys who had gotten a Frisbee caught up a tree--but their numbers. Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties--I daresay it would even give a merry toot--and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag.” — 36 people liked it

“I turned to my own bunk and examined it with a kind of appalled fascination. If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it. He had evidently included the pillow in his celebrations.” — 26 people liked it

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