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

by Bill Bryson

The inestimably priggish and tiresome Henry David Thoreau thought nature was splendid, splendid indeed, so long as 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.

“Then you walk very briskly back to the motel, with your hands over your balls, and hope this guy doesn’t spot you.” He was quiet a moment. “That’s it? That’s your best plan? That’s your very best plan?” “Have you got a better one?” “No, but I didn’t go to college for four years.” “Stephen, I didn’t study how to save your ass in Waynesboro. I majored in political science. If your problem was to do with proportional representation in Switzerland, I might be able to help you.”