Written by Bill Bryson, Reviewed by Darrick
A Walk in the Woods is a detailed account of Bill Bryson's elongated, real life, walk in the woods. Bill Bryson is a hilarious comedic travel writer, sort of a traveling Dave Barry, who is not in any way an experienced outdoorsman. In this book he tackles the Appalachian Trail. His main goal is to start at the southern end of the trail, in Georgia, and hike all 2,175 miles of it, ending in Maine. His original idea was to do this alone, but he eventually reconsiders and sends out a call to all of his friends/acquaintances to see if anyone is interested. Mr. Bryson gets a call from an old college buddy that he hadn't seen in ages, and the two rendezvous in Georgia for this great adventure.
Throughout the book they meet many obstacles including mosquitoes, bears, rain, cold, and soreness. The way Mr. Bryson describes these obstacles is really what makes the book shine. He has such a knack for making fun of himself and at the same time offering loads of very interesting information and history about the trail. Throughout A Walk in the Woods you find yourself pushing them on through the journey and rooting for them to complete the trek. The book really makes you feel like you’ve experienced the hike yourself, and you end up learning a lot about both the trail, Bill, and his partner.
I enjoyed A Walk in the Woods so much that I’ve since read four more Bryson books. I actually read this book first because I was going to be in Pennsylvania near a portion of the Appalachian Trail and had planned on doing some hiking. The book gave me a perspective on the trail and its enormousness as I hiked a measly five miles. Generally when you think of hiking the Appalachian Trail you think of thick woods and bears, but the portion I hiked consisted of a town, a river, a mile or two of fields, and some woods. Though I didn’t end up hiking much into the woods because of my fear of bears, especially with Mr. Bryson’s descriptions of encountering them fresh in my mind!