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| A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail) | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $14.94 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (967 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3535
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767902521
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.40443
EAN: 9780767902526
ASIN: 0767902521
Publication Date: May 4, 1999
Release Date: May 4, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A wondrous journey... August 28, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A wondrous journey, filled with side splitting humor and a love for the outdoors. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever dreamed of walking the Appalachian Trail. Who better to be your hiking partner and guide than a commedian.
Hysterical and inspiring August 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bill Bryson is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. It is rare to find a writer who so effortlessly makes any situation make you laugh out loud without feeling trite. This book makes you want to throw everything in a framepack and hit the trail. It is an exciting, funny and poignant walk through America's Eastern woods that has a universal appeal. Even if you spend your evenings watching TV and hate the thought of even getting a mosquito bite, this book will still captivate and entertain. At the very least, it makes an excellent read for a trip.
entertaining August 26, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bryson does a nice job of intermixing his comic style with the realistic preparations and efforts involved in attempting to walk the Appalachian Trail.
An enjoyable read even if you have no aspirations to attempt the 2,100 hike, but for Nature lovers and hikers it will be even better.
With nice descriptions of what he experiences in his walk, do not be surprised if you finish this book and tell yourself, "Hey, I could do that!"
Walk in the Woods August 23, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Excellent. Well documented and organized. A must read for anyone thinking about doioing the trail, but even good reading for even a virtual walk int the woods.
Nature writing and a travelogue with "oomph"! August 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Perhaps it was a fit of angst dealing with his own personal version of a mid-life crisis that led Bill Bryson to tackle the challenge of hiking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail! It was certainly a solid understanding of his own personality and clear recognition of his own physical and mental limitations that prompted him to invite his friend, Stephen Katz, an overweight and out of shape recovering alcoholic with an inordinate fondness for snack foods and cream soda to accompany him on this daunting challenge. The demands of the AT ultimately proved too much for Bryson and Katz who sensibly (and with an almost relieved sense of philosophical acceptance) decided to abandon the notion of a complete through hike. But the resulting story, drawn from Bryson's daily journal of the summer's efforts, is an overwhelming success and pure joy in the reading.
"A Walk in the Woods" is an extraordinary, entertaining travelogue on both the AT - the Appalachian Trail - and the people and places of small town America that dot the trail's path along the eastern seaboard from Georgia to Maine. At the same time, it is much, much more. Bryson is scathing in his political commentary and almost enraged criticism of the ongoing state of mismanagement and the sadly misguided policies of both the Parks and Forest Services of the US government. "A Walk in the Woods" is also a deeply moving introspective examination on the nature of friendship, family, perseverance, joy and despondency. As he and Katz amble along rock strewn trails dappled with sunlight broken by the leafy forest canopy, Bryson frequently, effortlessly and almost without our even noticing the change, wanders metaphorically off the main trail and onto a side path of lightweight but nonetheless informative and educational sidebars of nature writing on an amazingly wide variety of topics. Glaciation, bears, bugs, ecology, continental drift, hypothermia, hypoxia and weather are only a few examples of the topics which he elucidates for the lay reader with his clear, concise prose.
Then there is the humour! It is perhaps an understatement to say that, in this regard, Bryson has a rare gift. He has treated his readers to laughs originating in every imaginable corner of the vast world of humour - wry sardonic wit; biting satire; slapstick; self effacement; sarcasm and insults; fear; and even extended comedy sketches worthy of stage or television. His description of the astonishingly stupid and entirely self-absorbed fellow hiker Mary Ellen who has the annoying habit of constantly clearing her sinuses with a grating honk is definitely laugh-out-loud material.
Pure entertainment and enjoyment from first page to last. I believe Bill Bryson would consider it a compliment if I suggested that "A Walk in the Woods" is the first book I've ever read with a smile on my face during every single moment of the reading. Highly recommended - even if you've never spent a single night under nylon in the woods.
Paul Weiss
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